Rahul Gandhi to be made Congress president?

Struggling to recover from its worst electoral debacle, the Congress leadership has outlined a blueprint to revamp the party and redraft its socio-economic policies amid reports that Rahul Gandhi may be elevated to the position of party president.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has written a letter to PCC chiefs asking them to hold a series of consultative meets with party leaders to elicit views and coalesce a consensus on three core issues.

The core issues she has flagged are Congress' ideology, organisational reforms required to progressively devolve power and increased accoutability of leaders at all levels and the way forward for the party with a view to winning the confidence of all sections of society and expand its base. Gandhi has sought inputs from the party's state units to finalise the "agenda for action" and the way forward for its ratification in the next AICC session likely in March.

The party has also circulated an 11-page note containing suggestions culled from a series of discussions held by party Vice President Rahul Gandhi with around 450 leaders on ways and means to revive the party which is down in the dumps in the wake of BJP's surge under Narendra Modi in Lok Sabha elections last year.

With the youth predominantly voting for BJP in the Lok Sabha polls which saw Congress' tally of seats plummeting to a record low of 44, the note says "we cannot ignore the aspirations of the sections of the urban middle class which cuts across castes and religions."

It said the party must accordingly take up all progressive issues including "but not limited to secularism or welfare for the poor". "We have to redraft our socio-economic policies keeping their aspriations in view".