Inside Congress’ Reboot Plans And What To Make Of It

Losing elections after elections over the last decade, the Congress party has come to realise that apart from leadership issues, the party is also struggling with a weak organisational structure.

This realisation didn't hit Congress after the 2024 Lok Sabha election, where winning 99 seats was considered a 'moral victory' since the party could win only 44 seats in 2014 and 52 seats in 2019.

The realisation truly struck Congress after the Haryana elections, where the party was too confident of forming a government. The Maharashtra election losses and the refusal of ally Samajwadi Party (SP) to let Congress contest even a single seat in the Uttar Pradesh (UP) bypolls dealt further blows to the party.

Thus, the Congress began its organisational restructuring from UP itself, where the party dissolved all Congress committees in the state with immediate effect on 5 December 2024.

While the 'Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan' (organisation creation campaign) was officially launched in April 2025 with the Congress's Ahmedabad resolution, the UP Congress began organisational restructuring in December 2024 only.

After completing discussions about this restructuring on 13 January 2025, the party appointed a total of 133 functionaries on 20 March 2025, including district presidents for all 75 districts in UP and city presidents in districts where the party has a separate city unit for urban areas.

This means that in two months, the Congress was able to complete the appointment of district presidents, which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), known for its robust organisational structure, is yet to complete.

Notably, the organisation elections in the BJP also began in December 2024, with the election of booth-level and mandal (sub-division) presidents, who were to elect the district presidents by the end of January 2025.

However, the process got delayed and on 16 March 2025, the BJP appointed 70 of its 98 organisational district presidents, while there is no update on the appointment of the remaining 28 presidents yet. This shows that the Congress has been quicker and more efficient in appointing district presidents than the BJP.

However, there's a difference: the BJP first appointed booth-level and mandal presidents, followed by district presidents, whereas the Congress began by appointing district presidents and is now in the process of appointing district committee functionaries, as well as booth and mandal presidents.

Nonetheless, for Congress to compete with the BJP in terms of organisation structure, that too in a state like UP, where the Congress last formed government in 1985, while the BJP has been in power since 2017, is noteworthy.

This couldn't have been possible without the realisation that an organisation is built from the ground up and the dictums from the top rarely translate into grassroots changes. The realisation is evident from statements of several Congress leaders.

What has changed

It's not like Congress is restructuring its organisation for the first time following a major defeat. In recent times, this was first seen after the 2014 debacle, when Congress got its lowest-ever tally.

At that time too, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had emphasised a 'bottom-up overhaul' where internal elections for Youth Congress, and block/district units were announced, and more power to state units was promised.

However, these changes largely remained on paper, and most appointments were still top-down, with internal elections rarely being held beyond token contests. Many party committees, especially in the Hindi heartland, remained defunct.

Since then, the party has never made an effort to build the organisation from the grassroots. Only changes at the leadership levels were made, be it the induction of younger leaders like Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, and Jitin Prasada into key Congress committees or the resignation of Rahul Gandhi from the party president post after the 2019 loss.

Even the Congress' most talked-about rejuvenation attempt that began from Nav Chintan Shivir in Udaipur, Rajasthan, in May 2022, focused mainly on the party's public posturing, be it through Bharat Jodo Yatras or the promise of a nationwide caste census.

Although the Shivir talked about fixing the internal party structure and stronger Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs), neither full-scale internal elections nor new Congress Working Committee (CWC) elections were held. Practically, nothing happened for the organisational overhaul.

Thus, we can say that this is the first honest effort of the Congress to build an organisation from the grassroots in recent times. Moreover, the party also aims to empower its lower-level units, so that decisions remain aligned with on-ground sentiments.

This is evident from the announcement made in Ahmedabad in April that the party's district presidents would be made stronger. During his Bhopal visit on 3 June, Rahul Gandhi said that the district presidents would have direct access to top leadership.

He also assured that no decision would be imposed from the top, allowing lower leadership to make decisions based on consensus, and the top leadership would intervene only in the case of a dispute.

Similarly, Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari said that block and district presidents would be chosen based on the people's choice, not as per the choice of some leaders, and would play decisive roles in ticket distribution, suggesting empowerment of grassroots-level functionaries.

To ensure impartiality in these appointments, the Congress will appoint five observers in every district. This was a much-needed step for the Congress because it has been most affected by dynastic politics and the arbitrary decisions of regional leaders.

Another change is that Congress is keeping caste equations in mind, especially in UP, while making the appointments of district functionaries. "We are giving positions to Scheduled Castes (SC) and Backwards in large numbers," Congress's district vice president of Jaunpur, Neeraj Rai, told Swarajya.

What has been achieved till now

This shows that Congress's organisation overhaul plan is quite ambitious and honest, and aims to target the long-standing issues that the party has been facing. However, so far, it has reached only a few states.

In UP, the appointment of all district and city presidents has been completed. However, booth, block and mandal presidents and the functionaries of the district committees are yet to be announced.

"We are working Assembly-segment-wise. Our Jaunpur has nine Assembly segments. We are making a list for these positions based on which worker is likely to work wholeheartedly," Congress's district vice president of Jaunpur, Neeraj Rai, said.

Apart from UP, observers have been appointed in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh (MP), and Haryana for the selection of district presidents, and the election process has begun. It is likely to be completed by the end of June.

Nonetheless, the process itself is filling party workers with enthusiasm. Listing the changes after the Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan (SSA), UP's Neeraj Rai said, "The Congress is now reaching the villages. We are reconnecting with our old inactive workers. Their works are being recognised."

Similarly, a Congress worker from MP's Morena, Ayush Agrawal, said, "All Congress representatives, functionaries and workers are actively interacting with the appointed in-charge for the selection of district and city presidents. The list of names is in the final stage."

A Congress worker from Haryana's Faridabad, Chaudhary Gopal Bisht, shared, "It's a good initiative at the district level. Earlier, functionaries were chosen arbitrarily, but now, everyone is feeling involved."

"Party is giving posts to its dissatisfied workers, it's a good sign. It's like an initiative to woo the disheartened workers. But it's also true that they were inactive for many years. The absent workers have been brought back to the stage," he added.

In Haryana, district presidents have been chosen in many places, including Faridabad, but no list has been released officially. In MP, the panel is in the final stages of giving names. "Six names are given keeping caste equations in mind," Morena's Agrawal explained.

The shortcomings

While the Congress is evolving from its old practices of non-transparent functionary appointments and bringing back its disheartened workers, it is also facing a few issues in the process, like dissatisfaction among some workers and distrust in the selection process.

For instance, Haryana's Bisht said, "Those who have been dedicated to the party for long are being ignored. Those who were standing with the party in its bad times are not getting the desired respect," complaining about not getting any post.

While it's natural for a party worker to complain about not getting a post, the complaint of a sitting member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Haryana about the appointment process is noteworthy.

"Everything is going fine, but the same system, which did not let us form the government, is being adopted. For instance, the system of filling forms. One should appoint able persons, what's all this form filling," Congress MLA from Narnaud, Jassi Petwar, told Swarajya, criticising the bureaucratic system for the appointments.

Apart from these complaints, the involvement of the top Congress leadership in this organisational restructuring is also questionable. For instance, in UP, the state unit itself began and concluded the process.

Although Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge virtually addressed the newly appointed UP party functionaries in May, they had no interaction with Rahul Gandhi, who is a member of Parliament (MP) from UP only.

When asked about the involvement of top leadership, Jaunpur's Rai gave a vague response, "We work on the Pradesh Congress Committee's directives. They might be getting directives from the central leadership."

Anyways, from the presence on public platforms, it appears that UP Congress president Ajay Rai was the driving force behind this overhaul in the state, without much involvement of the central leadership.

Similarly, in Gujarat, the state leadership is driving the organisational overhaul. However, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal and Rajya Sabha MP and Gujarat in-charge Mukul Wasnik met the Gujarat observers in May.

The limited outreach

Rahul Gandhi was himself present only in Bhopal and Chandigarh on 3 and 4 June, respectively, to launch the SSA for Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Haryana, respectively. In both states, he met the appointed observers to select district presidents.

However, his presence did not have much political impact in Haryana, as evident from Narnaud MLA Petwar's statement, "I am not part of the organisation. He (Gandhi) met organisation people only, they would know better."

On the contrary, Gandhi met Congress MLAs, all senior leaders and the party's political affairs committee in MP. Earlier in April, during the launch of the SSA in Ahmedabad, he had addressed the orientation programme of 'district observers.'

Apart from these few engagements, Gandhi or other senior Congress leaders, for that matter, have not been involved in the SSA. Moreover, apart from the four states of UP, MP, Haryana and Gujarat, the SSA has not been launched anywhere yet.

The biggest question mark is on Bihar, where the Assembly elections are due in October-November; hence, the Congress would be in utmost need of an organisation for seat negotiations or contesting the polls, but no such initiative has been launched there.

In a few states like Rajasthan, where the PCC itself is carrying out the organisational restructuring and observers have not been appointed, the old Congress pattern of arbitrary appointments is set to be followed.

This is because the party is focussing on the upcoming Panchayat elections in Rajasthan and the organisation will be restructured accordingly to gain advantage in the local body elections, as per Rajasthan Congress president Govind Dotasra's 16 June statement.

Expressing disappointment over this, Rajasthan Youth Congress worker Anil Chaudhary told Swarajya, "It is being planned that the functionaries of the Panchayat level would be given posts in the organisation. This is like ignoring us. Instead, there should be 25-30 per cent reservation for Panchayat functionaries, while the rest positions should be filled based on merit."

While the Congress is moving forward with organisational restructuring only in a few states, the effectiveness of such an initiative, even in those states where it is being undertaken systematically, is also questionable.

This is because the organisational restructuring alone cannot deal with the specific organisational challenges that the Congress faces in those states. Let's understand the political dynamics of three states:

Haryana

The biggest challenge for the Congress in Haryana is factionalism between Bhupendra Singh Hooda and Kumari Selja, due to which the party has not been able to appoint a Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Legislative Assembly.

While Narnaud MLA Petwar denies any factionalism and says that the non-appointment of an LoP is a 'party policy,' Congress worker Bisht acknowledges that the non-appointment of an LoP is a 'manifestation' of the existing factionalism.

Critics say factionalism was one of the main reasons Congress lost in Haryana, despite the BJP facing 10 years of anti-incumbency. The same rift now threatens to derail the party’s organisational restructuring efforts.

This is because after 45 days of the appointment of all district presidents in Haryana, the state president is to be appointed by the top leadership. In such a scenario, both factions are likely to compete for the maximum number of district president posts to strengthen their claim over the state president position.

When district-level appointments are driven by factional interests, capable functionaries may be sidelined, undermining the effectiveness of the organisational overhaul and offering little long-term benefit to the party.

Madhya Pradesh

The central challenge for the MP Congress is the infiltration of the BJP workers or the BJP ideology among its workers. For instance, a first-time Congress MLA, Bhairo Singh, recently declared his association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) publicly.

Even the Morena Congress worker conceded, while talking to Swarajya, that their current district president was an 'outsider', who, despite being in Congress, worked for the party that gave him money, and emphasised the need for an organisational overhaul.

Rahul Gandhi's theme of discussion during his Bhopal visit also focussed on ousting the BJP-inclined Congress leaders as he called them 'BJP agents' and asserted the voices of hardworking Congress workers remain unheard due to them.

"The losses in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections had disheartened us and the line of being a Congress worker was blurred due to the politics of changing parties. Hence, this organisational overhaul was much needed to infuse the enthusiasm," the Morena worker added.

However, he expressed fear over the fact that even after the beginning of the organisational appointments, the BJP-inclined Congress workers have not been ousted, leaving the possibility of their involvement in the 'new' Congress organisation.

Uttar Pradesh

While the UP Congress has shown the most enthusiasm for the organisational overhaul, it is getting demotivated by its ally SP, whose national president, Akhilesh Yadav, keeps on claiming the continued alliance for the 2027 UP assembly elections.

With a restructured organisation, the UP Congress workers want to contest elections independently because they believe that the SP allots them fewer seats than they deserve and that the alliance with SP is eating up their vote bank and demotivating their cadre.

"We want Congress to contest elections alone. The alliance is the reason for the attrition of Congress workers. The alliance is imposed over our electoral chances. We want the Congress workers to get tickets to contest elections," Jaunpur vice-president Neeraj Rai said.

Even before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, UP Congress president Ajay Rai had expressed that he is ready to contest alone. But ultimately, an alliance was made, helping Congress in winning six seats, its best performance since 2014.

However, when SP didn't let Congress contest a single seat in the November 2024 bypolls and also didn't perform well itself, the Congress felt the need to restructure its own organisation.

Now that the organisation is taking shape, Congress would naturally want to utilise it. Otherwise, the motivation to strengthen it may fade. However, SP does not seem to let Congress do it, rendering its organisational overhaul useless.

Thus, we can say that despite being the most ambitious and honest effort at party restructuring since 2014, the Congress's SSA is marred by its limited reach to various states and low intent of the top leadership to make this programme nationwide.

Even in the states where it is being carried out comprehensively, it is likely to fail because of an established BJP ecosystem in Gujarat, BJP infiltration in MP, factionalism in Haryana and the overpowering ally SP in UP, and hence, only limited results should be expected unless these issues are dealt with separately.