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U.P. Congress meeting to boost party set-up

LUCKNOW: The forthcoming meeting of the Coordination Committee of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee is likely to finalise the agenda for strengthening the organisational framework of the party in the State to meet the challenges of the next Lok Sabha elections. The Committee is also expected to review the Congress’s preparedness and the issues to be taken up whenever the General elections are held.

The maiden meeting of the 22-member Coordination Committee to be held at the Pradesh Congress headquarters here on November 12 will be chaired by the UP Congress president, Rita Bahuguna-Joshi. The meeting will be attended by the All India Congress Committee General Secretary, Rahul Gandhi, who is a member of the panel.

Congress sources said that though the main points in the blueprint of the all-important meeting have been thrashed out following several rounds of meetings in Delhi, it would be finalised when the AICC General Secretary and in charge of UP affairs, Digvijay Singh arrives in Lucknow on November 6 for a meeting with State party leaders. Mr. Singh will return to Delhi next morning to attend the Congress Working Committee meeting.

Following the Congress Party’s debacle in the April- May 2007 UP Assembly polls, its star campaigners - UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi and the Amethi Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi - had attributed the party’s loss to the absence of a strong and vibrant organisational structure. When contacted, the UP Congress president said apart from issues related to the organisational framework and the strategy for the polls, implementation of the Central Government welfare schemes in U.P. will figure prominently in the meeting. “About 40 per cent of the Central budgetary allocation is coming to U.P. , the Congress would like to know where is the money going ”, said Dr. Joshi.

With Chief Minister, Mayawati, of late taking pot-shots at the UPA Government, her criticism of NREGP and the affidavit submitted on the Ram Sethu issue being the most recent ones, the Congress in U.P. seemed to be in a confused state regarding the line to be adopted against the Bahujan Samaj Party Government. Dr. Joshi, however, denied that the Congress is searching for a direction vis-À-vis Mayawati. “Considering that most of the decisions taken by the present regime were not people-oriented as a responsible Opposition the party is taking up relevant issues. One must remember that Ms. Mayawati has got a clear mandate”, Dr. Joshi stressed.

The coordination panel was constituted by Ms. Gandhi in October. It includes AICC General Secretary, Janardhan Dwivedi, Mohsina Kidwai, Union Ministers from UP, Sri Prakash Jaiswal, Mahabir Prasad and Akhilesh Das and former UPCC presidents, Salman Khurshid and Jagdambika Pal.

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