New Delhi: Two-and-a-half years after the Congress adopted the Udaipur Declaration to much fanfare, it has failed to implement most of what it said it would do to revitalise the organisation. Party leaders attribute the reluctance to the fact that many top leaders close to Rahul Gandhi would be affected.
During a three-day Nav Sankalp Shivir held between 14 and 16 May 2022 in Udaipur, Rajasthan, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) adopted the declaration, which included resolutions such as “no person should hold one party position for more than five years to give opportunity to new people”.
However, the resolutions are yet to be implemented, party leaders say, given the kind of people they will impact. For one, K.C. Venugopal would have to be replaced as the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (organisation) if the party were to implement the Declaration that put a five-year ceiling for anyone to hold a post. Venugopal has been holding this post for around six years now.
A senior Congress leader told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity, “KCV (K.C. Venugopal) is a power centre in the party. Even after 5 years when the tenure usually gets over, he continues in his post. It rarely happens. I do not remember when was the last time any GS (organisation) got so much extension.”
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, too, has been an AICC general secretary for five years and Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Wasnik for over 10 years.
Another AICC functionary, talking about how some leaders have become entrenched in the organisation “thanks to their proximity with Rahul Gandhi”, highlighted that Randeep Surjewala held the post of AICC communications in-charge for seven years until he was replaced by Jairam Ramesh in 2022. In 2020, Surjewala was promoted to AICC general secretary and has held the post since then.
Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh said, “All proposals will be implemented in the coming days. Our party is big. Sometimes it takes a long time to make big changes, so it’s not a big issue. We are continuously fighting against the BJP and its vicious agenda. The organisation changes will also happen in the coming days.”
ThePrint reached Venugopal for comment over the phone but has not yet received a response. This report will be updated once a response is received.
Yet to enforce ‘one person, one post’
Another unfulfilled big-ticket proposal of the Udaipur Declaration was the setting up of three new departments. In addition to an election management department, a public insight department was meant to get the views of the public on different issues, while a training institute would provide comprehensive training on the policies, ideology, and vision of the Congress government in the state at the time.
Since then, the Congress has lost several assembly polls—including key contests in Rajasthan in 2023 and in Haryana and Maharashtra this year—and has yet to form these three departments.
The Congress had also said the party will enforce the ‘one person, one post’ and ‘one family, one ticket’ principles with the caveat that a ticket for a second family member would be given if he or she had done at least five years of work for the party.
These proposals have also not been implemented to date with party president Mallikarjun Kharge himself holding two posts. He is also the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Similarly, Congress Delhi unit president Devender Yadav is also AICC in-charge of Punjab. Venugopal also heads the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.
Talking to ThePrint, veteran leader Janardhan Dwivedi said, “The Udaipur Declaration was more like a suggestive measure. As per the Congress’s constitution, only those proposals which passed in the CWC would be implemented. If any proposal is passed but not implemented, then it’s a concern.”
Even discussions not held
The Congress had also decided to give 50 percent representation to those below 50 years of age at all levels of the organisation. However, among the members and permanent invitees of the CWC, only four—Deepender Hooda, Sachin Pilot, Kanhaiya Kumar and Sachin Rao—are below 50 years of age.
At another three-day Nav Sankalp Shivir held between 24 and 26 February 2023 in Raipur, the Congress passed an amendment guaranteeing 50 percent reservation across All India Congress Committee (AICC) and the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) posts for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes, but such representation is still missing at the national or state level.
A senior party MP who attended both the sessions (Udaipur and Raipur) told ThePrint, “When we were present in Udaipur, it was being said that these declarations would be implemented soon. During the plenary session in 2023, some of these declarations were brought in the form of the party’s constitutional amendment but after that, nothing happened practically.”
He also added that, in Raipur, the constitutional amendment committee omitted the big-ticket change that was promoted in the Udaipur Nav Sankalp Shivir. “One of the biggest moves, the ‘one person, one post’ proposal that had come up, was pegged as the much-wanted overhaul needed in the party, was brushed under the carpet. So, there was some glitch had happened between these events. Later, nothing was implemented.”
ThePrint has learnt that these resolutions are not even being taken up for discussion during the Congress’s top leadership meetings. On 29 November, during the Congress Working Committee meeting, the first after the Maharashtra and Haryana losses, party president Mallikarjun Kharge emphasised the need to strengthen the organisation but he did not mention the implementation of the Udaipur Declaration.
According to political analyst Rashid Kidwai, “No such implementation happened in the last 2.5 years. There is no hunger and desperation to bring change to the party. This is one of the key reasons behind the party’s situation in the electoral battle. These things do not boost the morale of a common worker. They are not noticing any major change in the party despite continuous losses.”
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
