Priyanka was in Lucknow on Wednesday to address a state-level 'Chintan Shivir' and returned to Delhi on Thursday.
Strengthening the party's communication strategy to improve public engagement is foremost on the Congress agenda after Rahul Gandhi had stressed that they "have to go back to the people" at the Udaipur meeting.
The Congress Working Committee anointed Rahul Gandhi as party vice-president at the party's Chintan Shivir in Jaipur on Saturday. He is now the official number two in the Congress, paving the way for his projection as the party's prime ministerial candidate in the run up to the 2014 general elections.
Ashok Gehlot, widely seen as the Congress's ruling family's nominee for the Congress president's post, bunged a spanner in the works when his MLA supporters submitted their resignations on Sunday night to assembly Speaker C P Joshi.
Congress think tank members and senior functionaries like Ahmad Patel, Janardhan Dwivedi, Motilal Vohra, Digvijay Singh, Raj Babbar and Avtar Singh Badana along with other members of the party made the demand for projecting Rahul as PM at the strategy meet attended by significantly over 150 members of the Youth Congress and NSUI delegates.
The brainstorming session (chintan shivir) of the Congress will be held in Jaipur from January 18 to 20 to discuss political and economic situations and seek new ideas ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections.
Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Monday said he has conveyed to the party high command about recent political moves of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party to allegedly weaken the Congress in the state.
The Congress president also announced that a compact task force will be set up to drive the process of internal reforms that are essential.
Prashant Kishor expressed the view that the recent 'chintan shivir' could not achieve "anything meaningful".
There is talk that Rahul Gandhi will accept the party presidency at the end of the Congress conference. As he left for Udaipur, Congress workers turned up in large numbers at the Sarai Rohilla railway station in Delhi to see him off.
Rahul Gandhi hit an emotional stride as he spoke about his grandmother Indira Gandhi's assassination, how he saw his father Rajiv Gandhi cry for the first time, and how his mother Sonia Gandhi had come to his room on Saturday night and wept.
The issue of new allies and the likely challenge from BJP leader and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the next general elections are expected to dominate the Chintan Shivir of Congress at Jaipur this week.
The bold decisions are part of the Congress 'Nav Sankalp' declaration that was adopted at the end of the three-day 'Chintan Shivir in Udaipur, indicating that the party has chosen to put its weight behind the young leadership after a prolonged old-versus-new tussle.
The former Punjab Congress chief had been upset with the party for serving him a show-cause notice.
To chart the Congress's future course, its chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday formed three groups -- on political affairs for guidance on key issues, task force-2024 to implement the Udaipur 'Nav Sankalp' declaration, and another to coordinate the October 2 'harat Jodo Yatra.
The highlight of the five-hour meeting, which ended with a plan to hold a 'chintan shivir' at the earliest opportunity to chalk the Congress' future strategy, was a demand by Sonia Gandhi's loyalists that Rahul Gandhi should assume the party leadership again.
The Congress has decided to shift its MLAs in Rajasthan to a Udaipur hotel, with party sources saying they fear that the Bharatiya Janata Party will poach them ahead of the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections.
Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge has resigned as the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, sources said on Saturday, a day after he filed his nomination papers for the All India Congress Committee president's election.
The Congress will reach out to civil society members and like-minded political groups for the 'Bharat Jodo' yatra from October 2 for rallying support to combat polarisation and protect Constitution, democracy and various institutions, senior party leaders said on Thursday.
In Karnataka, the BJP lost the elections because of multiple poles of power, a problem the central leadership could not sort out in time. Could the same happen to the Congress in Rajasthan? asks Aditi Phadnis.
Facing flak from Bharatiya Janata Party and Sangh Parivar over his controversial Hindu terror remarks, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde Wednesday said he fully endorses Congress party's stand that there was no colour to terrorism.
'There was COVID-19 for two years. Nobody met anyone during that period of time. Even before he resigned from his post in the organization, he used to tell us to meet General Secretary for organization-related work'
AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said eight former MLAs joined the party in Haryana two days ago, and lamented that such fresh developments were not getting prominence.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday charged Congress is running away from doing an honest introspection about its "failures" at the ruling party's conclave in Jaipur and instead engaging in "self-certification" about its actions despite not meeting even "doable" targets set by it.
Gearing up for the 2014 general elections, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday told partymen that unity should be their watchword as the party had floundered many an opportunity for want of discipline.
A strong demand for ending the culture of nomination at all levels for democratic functioning of the party and its revival was made at the Congress brainstorming conclave in Jaipur on Saturday.
The Congress could have regained some lost ground had it returned to welfare and a pro-poor platform. Instead, it has moved in the opposite direction. Rahul Gandhi's upper middle class-based political mobilisation strategy is likely to fail badly, says Praful Bidwai.
Can Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi win allies for their parties if made the prime ministerial candidates for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections? Saroj Nagi analyses
The Congress will be wary of wheeling out Rahul Gandhi, when in all likelihood the Bharatiya Janata Party would field Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as one of its principal campaigners in the next general elections. Modi's image as a doer, a forceful orator, a great catalyst for the faster industrialisation of Gujarat beats the blankness of Rahul's CV, says Virendra Kapoor
On such a historic day in the 127-year-old Congress party's history, Rahul Gandhi presented himself as a dreamy-eyed idealist who is trying to be a visionary instead of an Indian leader keen to be a man of steel to take on the hard realities of India. Sheela Bhatt assesses Rahul Gandhi's emotional first speech as Congress vice-president.
Congress workers want Rahul Gandhi to play a "pre-dominant" role in the party but the young leader should not be pressurised, Digvijay Singh said on Friday.
Senior leaders P Chidambaram and Digvijaya Singh are learnt to be the front-runners to take on the mantle of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.
The Bhartiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh have taken strong exception to the statement made by Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shide at the Chintan Shivir in Jaipur.
In a statement that is expected to erupt a huge political row, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Sunday, "The RSS and BJP are running terrorist training camps to spread Hindu terrorism."
A day after Rahul Gandhi's anointment as party's vice president, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Sunday targeted youth, women and middle class in the party's quest for widening its base ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
With the rout in the year-end assembly elections, Congress has been left looking at the bottom of the barrel ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, with Narendra Modi breathing down its neck.
In keeping with the new Congress mantra: youth lao party bachao, delegates to the Chintan Shivir in Jaipur have demanded that 30 per cent of the seats in the organisation and tickets in the coming elections should be reserved for the youth. The need for a quota for the youth has been echoed at various levels and has the endorsement of Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, who has been pushing to give more tickets to the youth.
Senior party leaders stressed that no one except the Gandhi family can hold the party together, the party will disintegrate and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra should be given command after 2024.
The statement of Gudha came after former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi batted for the "one-man, one-post" concept in lines with the party's Chintan Shivir reforms amid possibility of Gehlot contesting election for the post of national president of the party.
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