The team members, who are all from outside the state, are studying the organisational infrastructure of the party up to the village and ward level in every constituency, as also the winning chances of the party in these places.

Besides, the team has been asked to shortlist the names of the party leaders and workers as per their popularity, which can be useful while selecting and finalising the nomination list.

Each team is expected to submit its report to AICC by February 15.

The exercise, according to senior party leaders, is being conducted by AICC to assess to what extent the party is equipped to face the next general elections, and what effort has been made to rejuvenate the party, which was almost in shambles a few years ago.

Former state Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki had made a strong effort to ensure that the party infrastructure was rebuilt in each and every village. He had also succeeded to a large extent by setting up party units under his 'one booth, five youth' plan at the election booth level in almost every ward and village.

But there were complaints, particularly from the rural areas, about the absence of party infrastructure at the booth level.

A large number of booths were reported to be without party workers during the December 2007 Assembly polls. The presence or absence of workers at poll booths, according to party leaders, affects polling and the outcome of the elections.

It was on the basis of this infrastructure that the new party dispensation, which took over about seven months ago, began working to strengthen the party.

During the period, it held ‘lok darbars’, took out ‘rath yatras’ and recently organised the ‘abhay udaan, bharat mahaan’ campaign with a view to mobilise the youth and the masses in favour of the party. The plan was to educate people about the UPA government’s initiative on tackling terror post 26/11.

Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Siddharth Patel said a parallel exercise of preparing the political profile of each Lok Sabha constituency with a background of probable contestants was also recently conducted by the state unit.

“Both reports will be submitted to AICC by February 15,” he said.