Becoming an office-bearer in Congress may not be easy in the future with the party now mulling to allow only those who attend its training programmes for organisational posts.
For this, sources said, the Congress is likely to amend its Constitution in a plenary session that will be held after the election of a new party president in August-September next year.
The party is also planning a 'Chintan Shivir' in Rajasthan in January next year to take steps to strengthen the party and formulate policies of the party. Congress had earlier held similar exercises in Pachmarhi (1998) and Shimla (2003).
The Congress Working Committee on October 16 has already cleared an "elaborate" and "continuous" training programme, a first-of-its-kind for the Congress, for leaders and workers from "top to bottom".
The training programme is aimed at equipping leaders and workers on party ideology and policy, expectations from party workers, election management and countering propaganda among others.
This is the first time the Congress is chalking out a national level training programme. The first camp for state-level trainers will be held in Sevagram in Maharashtra's Wardha from November 12 to 15 with specific emphasis on the two-week-long agitation programme 'Jan Jagran Abhiyan'.
Sources said a department on training has been set up a couple of years ago and a close Rahul aide Sachin Rao along with his team has been working on the curriculum for the programme.
In the upcoming organisational election that will culminate in the election of party president next year, they said, the criteria of mandatory participation in party training programmes would not be enforced. However, once the amendment is cleared, this would come into force.
Sources also said the Congress plans to add around six crore new members in the party through the membership drive that started on November 1 and would end on March 31 next year. At present, Congress is expected to have around 3.5 crore members while BJP president JP Nadda recently claimed that his party has 18 crore members.
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