Soni made group convenor to oversee Congress meet

New Delhi: Former information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni has been made the convenor of a high-level group headed by Congress veteran Motilal Vora to oversee the organisation of the Chintan Shivir at Jaipur on 18 and 19 January. Other members include AK Antony, Ahmed Patel, P Chidambaram, Janardan Dwivedi, Oscar Fernandes, Digivijay Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Jairam Ramesh.[caption id=“attachment_548341” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Congress leader Ambika Soni. Image courtesy PIB[/caption] The Chintan Shivir assumes importance with the Lok Sabha elections just 18 months away and the Congress utilising the brainstorming session to generate new ideas. The exercise in Jaipur will be crucial for the party and is expected to be the first such venture after a proposed reshuffle of AICC secretariat when Rahul Gandhi is set to assume a larger role in the party. A section of the party believes that the party reshuffle will take place after the Jaipur meet. The idea of Chintan Shivir was mooted by Sonia Gandhi during the party’s plenary here in December 2010 but it could not materialise as both the government and the party has battled one crisis after another since then. The issue of alliances is expected to figure prominently at the Jaipur session as it had done in Pachmarhi and Shimla. At Pachmarhi, Congress had held that coalition is a transient phase while that in Shimla had called for unity of secular forces that led to the formation of UPA in 2004 ousting BJP-led NDA from power. The Shivir will review political and economic situation as well discuss schemes implemented by UPA government in rural and urban areas. It is part of a series of programmes by Congress in recent months to galvanise the party for the Lok Sabha polls. PTI