Sonia constitutes panel to revive Cong before polls

Agencies Posted: Jun 04, 2008 at 1154 hrs
New Delhi, June 4: Faced with a series of electoral debacles, Congress on Wednesday set up a seven-member committee headed by Defence Minister A K Antony to suggest ways to put its house in order ahead of several elections, including that of the Lok Sabha.

AICC General Secretaries Digvijay Singh and Mukul Wasnik, Union Ministers P R Dasmunsi and Mani Shankar Aiyar, and senior leader Urmila Singh are the other members of the group, which also has Ghulam Nabi Azad as the only party chief minister on it.

The group has been constituted by party President Sonia Gandhi as a follow-up to a decision taken at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Saturday, which was held in the backdrop of the defeat in Karnataka.

It has been asked to submit its suggestions to the Congress President within 15 days.

This is the second such committee headed by Antony, who had chaired a similar panel nearly a decade back after some electoral reverses.

Gandhi, who has completed a decade as party chief, had constituted a task force headed by P A Sangma to suggest ways to revive the organisation some years back.