Sonia Gandhi's Task Force 2024 holds its first meeting, takes a broad view of challenges ahead

The task force 2024 is headed by former finance minister P Chidambaram and has members like Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Jairam Ramesh, writes Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi:Hours after Congress chief Sonia Gandhi set up the Task Force 2024, the first meeting of the key panel took place on Tuesday where the leaders reviewed the challenges before the grand old party. The task force 2024 is headed by former finance minister P Chidambaram and has members like Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken, Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala and poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu.

“The first meeting of the task force 2024 was held today. We decided to meet every 72 hours or more to prepare a blueprint of current issues and place it before the Congress President,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, who is also a member of the panel, said after the meeting. “We will prepare a detailed plan on organization, finances, media communication, grassroots connect, poll management and other issues that will come before us. We will take necessary approvals from the Congress president, hold consultations with the senior leaders and place the reports before the Congress Working Committee,” he added.

According to Surjewala, the task force will work as per the developing situation and take a call on various issues. Besides the task force, Congress also set up a political affairs committee headed by Rahul Gandhi and a central panel to coordinate the nationwide foot march being planned for October. Though the broad focus of the task force is the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the other two panels will work in tandem with each other.

Read: Sonia Gandhi sets up key Congress task force panels to prepare for 2024 polls

“The three panels are not limited to the 2024 national elections. They will also prepare a strategy for the assembly elections that will come before the big fight,” said Surjewala.

As many as 11 states will have assembly polls over the next two years, including Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh among others.

“Our task is cut out. We have to do politics at the grassroots level as suggested by Rahul Gandhi Ji and counter the BJP’s divisive agenda,” said Surjewala, adding that “the government is trying to deflect attention from its failures.”

According to the AICC general secretary in charge of Organization, KC Venugopal, each member of the task force will be assigned specific responsibility related to organization, communications and media outreach, finance and election management. Each member of the task force will have designated teams which will be notified subsequently. The task force will follow up on the Nav Sankalp Declaration approved in Udaipur and the reports of the six groups on various issues like political situation, economy, social justice, farmers and agriculture, organization and youth and empowerment.