Even as six dissident Congress MLAs in Tripura on Tuesday resigned from the Congress, following in the footsteps of party's Chhattisgarh strongman Ajit Jogi and Maharastra leader Gurudas Kamat, the party high-command is trying to strike a balance between the old guard, fiercely opposed to vice-president Rahul Gandhi and the young generation.
It is now believed that in order to stop more exits from the party, Congress president Sonia Gandhi is contemplating to resurrect the party's parliamentary board filled with the seniors for taking all policy decisions while giving a free hand to vice-president Rahul Gandhi to fill in the Congress headquarters with his loyalists for carrying out filed operations. Other political party having a powerful parliamentary board with veteran leaders, but absolved from day-to-day functioning is the BJP.
After last month's loss of Assam and Kerala, top party leaders like Digvijaya Singh and Shashi Tharoor urged a major overhaul while steering clear of blaming the Gandhis even indirectly for the electoral calamity. There is clamour from party leaders for Rahul to take over as president and choose his team, in order to end uncertainties.
The Congress sources said the changes in the party hierarchy are expected later this month as the leadership is just waiting for completion of the biennial Rajya Sabha elections on June 11. Sonia Gandhi is planning to fill the parliamentary board with seniors having experience and leave the youngsters in his team to handle the day-to-day show. The parliamentary board used to be an influential party forum till Sonia took over in 1998. She instead opted for a small group of advisors, headed by her political secretary Ahmed Patel, to advise her on all crucial decisions. The party's constitution still defines the parliamentary board as the highest decision-making body, comprising Congress president as its chairman and nine other members. Sources here said that Rahul will be included as a member as he will be then a link between the board and the general secretaries to carry out the decisions of the board.
Party sources said Sonia appeared agreeable to such an arrangement suggested by the seniors like P Chidambaram, M Veerappa Moily, Digvijay Singh and Kamal Nath. They said Rahul also agreed to the idea, as it will save him from the burden that the party leaders put on them by leaving all decisions on him.
Although the party has a supreme policy-making body of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), it rarely meets and does not handle the day-to-day matters. Chidambaram was the first to suggest an institutional mechanism to run the party instead of the Congress President banking on a handful of advisers to restore the collective leadership of the party. Other party veterans feel constitution of a parliamentary board as a better choice before Sonia hands over the party baton to Rahul.
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