Rahul Gandhi chairs first Congress steering committee meet; plenary session on future strategy to be held from 16 to 18 March

New Delhi: A plenary session of the Congress to discuss and evolve the party’s future strategy will be held in Delhi on 16, 17 and 18 March, its chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said on Saturday. The dates were fixed at a meeting of steering committee, which was formed after dissolving the Central Working Committee. Congress president Rahul Gandhi chaired the first meeting of the steering committee. [caption id=“attachment_4355853” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Congress president Rahul Gandhi after the steering committee meeting on Saturday. Twitter@INCIndia[/caption] Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and senior leaders including AK Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge attended the meeting. Rahul had dissolved the Congress Working Committee and formed the 34-member Steering Committee to work in its place till a new CWC was set up. The party’s plenary session will be attended by all AICC delegates who elected the new Congress chief. While all outgoing CWC members are part of the new committee, some permanent invitees such as Amarinder Singh, Vilas Muttemwar, RK Dhawan, Shivajirao Deshmukh, MV Rajasekharan and Mohsina Kidwai, and all special invitees have been dropped from the new panel. As per the party’s Constitution, the 25-member CWC has 12 elected members and 11 nominated members, besides the Congress president and the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party. The new members of the CWC will be elected either at the plenary or after it.