Congress' 'Chintan Shivir': A look at the party's previous brainstorming conclaves

The Congress had conducted similar sessions thrice in the past

As the Congress is starting its three-day 'Chintan Shivir' on Friday in Rajasthan's Udaipur, the grand old party is eyeing to bring about some major changes in the party's functioning.

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

The 'Shivir' will focus on time-bound party restructuring, finding ways to combat politics of polarisation and getting battle-ready for upcoming electoral challenges. The Congress is likely to enforce the 'One family, one ticket' formula granting exemption to only another family member who has been doing "exemplary work" for the party for a period of at least five years, as the grand old party promised big ticket changes while acknowledging that it had not kept pace with changing times.

The other major organisational reforms being considered include establishing mandal committees between booth and block level in the organisation, 50 percent representation to those below 50 years of age in party committees at all levels, fixing the maximum of five years tenure for party positions with a cooling off period of three years, setting up of a 'public insight department' for creating an in house survey mechanism and an assessment wing to gauge the performance of office bearers.

Also read: Congress says 'one family one ticket' being discussed

However, this is not the first brainstorming conclave for the Congress as it had conducted similar sessions thrice in the past.

Pachmarhi in 1998

The first such 'shivir' was held in Madhya Pradesh's Pachmarhi in 1998 where it was decided that the party would not go into any alliance as it was confident to win polls on its own.

Shimla in 2003

Changing its stance five years later, the Congress in the Shimla conclave in 2003 agreed to have an alliance with "like-minded" parties. The party had then said that they decided to join "progressive thinking men and women, institutions and political movements who share our understanding of India’s past, our concerns with India’s present and our vision of India’s future to join us in this historic endeavour”.

Jaipur in 2013

The last such conclave was held in Jaipur in 2013 ahead of the 2014 general elections when the Congress-led UPA was in power. It focussed on the elevation of Rahul Gandhi as vice president of the party. The Congress had then also framed a blueprint for the elections, but it turned out to be a failure as BJP had won the polls.

(With inputs from PTI)