Sonia plans contact programme

By Our Staff Correspondent

PATNA, JULY 1. The AICC(I) president, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, is likely to embark on a contact programme with party functionaries right down to the block level on a zonal basis ahead of the organisational elections which are to be completed by November- end.

If the proposed move comes about, Mrs. Gandhi will be launching herself on the course her deceased husband, Rajiv Gandhi, had charted soon after assuming power. Rajiv Gandhi then held a meeting of all office- bearers especially the block presidents at Talkatora Stadium in Delhi. At the meeting he sought to give the Panchayati Raj system a Constitutional validity.Almost 15 years later, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi is seeking to follow the same path with a difference. Instead of holding a massive convention in Delhi she is aiming to hold meetings on a zonal basis starting with the eastern region.

The tentative dates for the first of these interactions to be held in Patna are July 19 and 20. The programme will cover Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The members of the CWC, besides AICC(I) members and State office- bearers, district presidents and block presidents of the five States will attend the meeting to be presided over by Mrs. Gandhi.

The official objective of the interactions is to strengthen the organisation, but it gains significance coming as it does ahead of the organisational elections and general elections to Assemblies in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Mrs. Gandhi may well be endeavouring to strengthen her hold after a rather dismal performance in the Lok Sabha elections last year.

Patna may well have been chosen as the venue more because the internal differences in the State party are within manageable proportions, unlike in West Bengal and Orissa. The legislative wing has remained almost united and followed the central directive thus far be it on the formation of the coalition government with the RJD or the biennial elections to the State Council and the Rajya Sabha.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Other States
Next     : Privilege move against Laloo