One family, one ticket: At Chintan Shivir, Congress hints at reform, but rule will exclude Gandhis

Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken on Thursday said the Grand Old Party would undergo big changes in a bottoms up approach, kickstarting the ‘historical’ Chintan Shivir in Udaipur.

He said the ‘Udaipur Declaration’ would be adopted after talks on six main subjects by six committees during the political conclave aimed at revamping the Congress, which is facing a bout of internal dissatisfaction and electoral defeats.

It remains to be seen whether the ideas will come up for discussion at the Chintan Shivir which is being held to deliberate and find a roadmap for the party’s electoral revival. As many as 430 Congress leaders have assembled for the Shivir, the first such brainstorming session since the party’s electoral slide began in 2014.

Addressing a meeting of the Congress Working Committee earlier this week, party president Sonia Gandhi said she was “determined” to ensure that the Shivir “heralds a restructured organisation to meet the many ideological, electoral and managerial challenges” that the party confronts.

Maken said that a proposal is being considered that 50 per cent party positions be reserved for those less than 50 years of age in party committees at every level of the Congress organisation.

He said there is unanimity on establishing mandal committees between booth and block level in party organisation.

Maken, who is a member of the coordination committee on organisation for discussion at the Chintan Shivir, said the party is deliberating on setting up a 'public insight department' to ascertain views of the people and carry out surveys for getting battle ready for elections The Congress is also considering setting up an 'assessment wing' to gauge performance of office bearers, he said.

"We are also working on a mechanism for enforcing stricter discipline," he said.

The three-day 'Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir' is being held in the backdrop of a string of electoral defeats and dissent in the party for the past many years.

Maken said the party would hold talks at making the Congress more youth-centric, with a proposal to include 50% youth leaders in each committee. Calling the measure ’50 below 50′, Maken said the youth leaders will be below the age of 50.

The BJP has already set an age-ceiling of 75 years for holding posts in the organisation and for contesting elections. The CPM has put in place a retirement age of 75 for members in all bodies including the Politburo and Central Committee. The CPM has also been enforcing a norm barring a member from being elected to the Rajya Sabha for the third time.

He also addressed the ‘one family one ticket’ system, saying the party was mulling conditions wherein at least five years of prior work by a family member would be required for any relative who wanted a ticket. He said a person would also require to undergo a ‘cooling off period’ after working at a post for five years.

On the "One Family, One Ticket" rule, which bars more than one person from a family from contesting elections, the Congress has hinted in advance that this may spare the Gandhis - Sonia Gandhi and her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The rider to the rule, which leaves all three Gandhis eligible to contest, signals a loophole that reinforces critics' views that the party will attempt no more than surface-level changes, at a time there are calls for a deep overhaul.

The Shivir will focus on time-bound party restructuring, finding ways to combat politics of polarisation and getting battle-ready for upcoming electoral challenges.

It will begin Friday afternoon following which over 400 delegates will discuss subject-specific issues across six groups.

These discussions will continue on the first and second day and the conclusions will be recorded in the form of a declaration, a draft of which will be discussed at the CWC meeting to be held there on the third and last day.