File photo of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi spent close to four hours with senior leaders on Thursday evening to discuss the revival of the party.
Sources say Mr Gandhi met senior leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni, Mani Shankar Aiyar and Jaipal Reddy among others to discuss the Congress' repeated losses in election. From Team Rahul, Jairam Ramesh, Sachin Pilot and Meenakshi Natarajan were present during the discussions.
This was perhaps the first serious brainstorming session after the Congress lost Maharashtra and Haryana to the BJP. The main topic of discussion was how the Congress could turn around to meet the challenge posed by the ruling party.
The debate on the reasons for the loss saw some interesting points. Apart from anti-incumbency, many leaders believed internal sabotage was an important reason for the party faring poorly in some seats.
The projection of a strong leader was another important suggestion forwarded by a former UPA minister, often seen as a party strategist. "One former UPA minister suggested that the people prefer a strong leader these days. That may be correct but what can the leader do if our booth level workers can't get our supporters to come and vote," said a senior leader.
Many in the meeting believed that the Congress should only attract people who believe in the party's core ideology. "There is a need to have people who not only know about our ideology but also understand what it means. For example, people in our party talk about secularism or inclusive growth. But they won't be able to elaborate on what these terms mean," said another leader who was part of the meeting.
Leaders also debated whether the Congress should turn into a cadre-based party with more structured training for its members. Some seniors also pointed out how the Congress party during Jawahar Lal Nehru's time used to engage in social activities like providing free education, community service, maintaining cleanliness in the neighbourhood.
"Earlier, on October 2, we would take up cleanliness drives, especially in Harijan colonies, to drive home the social message that no work is small. Now, it has been hijacked by the BJP," said the senior leader.
The Congress discussed the issue of having a more representative election within the party so that people without any political lineage can also come up. "This has been an issue dear to the Vice President and he wants to implement it earnestly," said another leader who didn't want to be identified.
Clearly, facing defeat after defeat in the last five months, the Congress seems to be desperately looking for a formula that can turn its fortunes.