Congress renames Outreach Cell as ‘Rachnatmak Congress’, appoints Sandeep Dikshit as chairperson

New Delhi: Sprucing up its engagements with activists and intellectuals, Congress on Monday renamed its ‘Outreach Cell’ as ‘Rachnatmak Congress’ and appointed former East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit as its chairperson.

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge made the appointment of Dikshit, giving him the mandate of facilitating “meaningful interactions” with activists and academicians among others on policy matters and social concerns to help the party to benefit from various shades of opinion.

Before entering electoral politics, two-term MP Dikshit, the son of former Delhi Chief Minister late Sheila Dikshit, was involved with civil society activism and continues to do so. He headed the Research Cell of Congress for three years and was national spokesperson.

Announcing his appointment, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal said the ‘Rachnatmak Congress’ will function as a dedicated platform for engagement with civil society groups, domain experts, academicians, activists and issue-based collectives.

“Its primary mandate will be to facilitate meaningful interaction on a wider range of policy matters and social concerns, enabling the Congress party to benefit from diverse perspectives and ground-level insights,” Venugopal said.

The revival of the outreach cell comes at a time the Congress has announced a nationwide agitation on MGNREGA, which was a product of Congress’ engagement with the civil society during the UPA government. Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, which had civil society activities as members, had pushed for laws on transparency and food security.

However, the Congress’ relationship with the civil society eroded during the Anna Hazare-led India Against Corruption Movement, which eventually led to the defeat of the UPA government. It was revived during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra by roping in activist Yogendra Yadav though there were criticism that a section of “secular” activists were kept away.

With Dikshit’s appointment, the Congress now wants to revive its outreach at the party level by reaching out to the non-BJP, non-RSS civil society.

The party believes that Dikshit’s experience with NGOs and the connections he built over years would be helpful in the exercise. Dikshit has been part of the voluntary organisations that wrote State Human Development Reports besides being a member of the National Council on MG-NREGA.