Sonia plans to draft young leaders in party structure

A large-scale revamp of the central structure of the Congress is expected to take place next week, once Rajya Sabha elections are over.

The revamp will make the party a lean, mean, more efficient machine instead of the slothful and lumbering organisation it currently is, involving new young blood at the lower level of secretaries in charge of departments.

Currently, the party has around 45 secretaries in charge of various departments. The secretaries are expected to push for dynamism in the party and suggest innovative ways to make the party more visible.

Top sources in the party said in the past, social engineering and caste issue used to dominate appointments at this level. Now, however, human resource deployment will be viewed critically and professionals, especially from the states, be invited to make their presence felt in the AICC.

The party is determined to re-establish its presence in states like Gujarat where it believes it can regain the ground lost to the BJP. There is the additional issue of reviving the party in states like Bihar, where Assembly elections are due.

There is recognition also that not much can be done with the dead wood in states like Orissa, where young untried leaders with ideas are few and far between.

Jayanti Patnaik, the wife of former chief minister JB Patnaik, lost her seat by a margin of over 200,000 votes.

"We let a non-Oriya speaking leader like Naveen Patnaik cut the ground from under our feet, not because he was a great performer but because we had no one to field against him, " said a party leader.

A reshuffle is also necessary because some general secretaries like Oscar Fernandes and Kamal Nath have become ministers. Others like Motilal Vora, currently treasurer, could become governors. There is also speculation that Ahmad Patel could become party treasurer.

Party sources say young leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia, RPN Singh (who lost the Lok Sabha election from Padrauna, UP), Vibhakar Shastri and Rahul Gandhi could be drafted in the organisation.

Salman Khurshid and Margaret Alva are likely to go as general secretaries.

Ambika Soni and Mukul Wasnik, currently general secretaries, are unlikely to be touched. A large complement of young Congressmen from Bihar could come to the organisation in view of the Assembly polls.

The party has begun to gear up for the Maharashtra Assembly elections. This is why a reshuffle will be topmost in the list of priorities of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi when the Rajya Sabha elections conclude.

Party sources say radical changes in the party will be effected now because she is stronger today, after the electoral victory, than she will ever be.