By Bosco Celestine
Special for TIA
NEW DELHI: Revamping of the organizational structure in the All India Congress Committee (AICC) and Cabinet Reshuffle at the Centre has missed more deadlines than the preparations for the Commonwealth Games starting on October 3.
The exercise was to be completed before the Monsoon Session of Parliament. This could not take place due to compelling circumstances.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi had to rush to United States to be with her ailing mother. Rahul Gandhi followed her.
Now the latest deadline set is sometime between November 1 to 15 a week before Winter Session of Parliament.
There are at least half-a-dozen General Secretaries who have one foot in the Dr Manmohan Singh’s team of Ministers. Party insiders say that Mrs. Gandhi is keen to revert back to one-man-one post so that some of the General Secretaries could devote more time to party work to strengthen the Pradesh Congress committees.
Assembly elections are due in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam next year followed by all important polls in Uttar Pradesh in 2012.
Prithivaraj Chauhan, V Naryanaswamy, Ajay Maken, Oscar Fernandes, Veerappa Moily and Ghulam Nabi Azad holding due portfolios.
The Party is keen to complete this exercise as early as possible keeping in view grand celebrations of the Grand old party which turned a century-and-a-quarter. The celebrations is slated for mid-December in Mumbai.
Coming to long-awaited changes in the Union Council of Ministers, there is strong perception that there is urgent need to get rid of non-performers and Ministers habitually prone to court controversies and speaking out-of-turn. According to Party insiders, Mrs. Gandhi has taken serious note of growing indiscipline in the Government leaving its flank open for opposition attack.
This malaise, it is learnt, has been brought to the notice of the Prime Minister. But for some reason or other, Dr. Manmohan Singh has been rather reluctant to take action against erring ministers.
Mrs. Gandhi, it seems feels, that changes in the Council of Ministers is one option available as it is the prerogative of the Prime Minister to chop and change his team.
The United Progressive Alliance-I was a tremendous success winning all-round praise for social and economic programmes for the benefit of Aam Aadmi. But the UPA-II appears to have run into all sorts of problems, hardly one year has been completed.
These compelling reasons, Mrs. Gandhi has urged the Prime Minister to set this things right at least before the next winter session of Parliament.