Shape up or ship out: Congress president Kharge to leaders

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday bluntly told party leaders to make way for new leaders if they are incapable of performing the tasks assigned to them.

Kharge, the first non-Gandhi to head the party in 24 years, also pitched for “organisational accountability from top to bottom” during his plain-speaking at the first meeting of the Steering Committee after he became the president.

The veteran said Congress can win elections and serve the country only if the organisation is “strong, accountable, and lives up to the expectations of the people”.

At the meeting, also attended by Sonia Gandhi, it was decided to hold the Plenary Session in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur in the second half of February and launch a two-month ‘Haath se Haath Jodo Abhiyan’ starting from January 26, as a follow-up to the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Kharge said some leaders believe that the leadership will surely look the other way if they do not deliver on their responsibilities.

“While there are a number of people who carry out party work with full responsibility, some of the leaders think that the leadership will ignore them even if they do not deliver on assigned responsibilities. This is neither right nor acceptable. Those who are not capable of delivering should have to make way for new people,” he said.

Asked about Kharge’s remarks, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal told reporters that the party will not allow anyone to treat positions as an “ornament”.

He said the party will closely monitor the performance of leaders who are mandated to work full-time for the party.

Hinting at what he expected of general secretaries and in-charges, Kharge asked whether they visit the assigned states at least for 10 days in a month and have district and other units to help them understand the ground situation.

He also wanted to know whether district and block committees have been formed in states, new faces being inducted in the leadership, and the outline of activities planned for the next 30 to 90 days in states on issues of public interest.

“How many times agitations have taken place at block, district and state level on the orders of AICC? Are the frontal organisations and party departments and their units raising the voice of those sections for which they have been formed?” he said.

“In states where Assembly elections are to be held between today and 2024, what is the planning and activity schedule that has been finalised?”

The party president said unless people at the top do not prepare a blueprint and implement them at the ground level, “our responsibility cannot be fulfilled”.

Praising the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Kharge said it is scripting history and has now taken the form of a national movement.