After PCCs, can RPCCs be the way forward for ailing Congress?

Kochi: At a time when the Congress is facing an existential crisis following the rout in the Lok Sabha polls, party intelligentsia and strategists are working overtime to find a way out.

With the party's disappointment being evident, especially with president Rahul Gandhi's firm decision to quit, leaders from various regions are united in the view that the organisation needs a structural overhaul.

As desperate times call for desperate measures, some party leaders are suggesting some structural changes that are unheard of in the party's 134-year history.

One such proposal is to form Regional Pradesh Congress Committees apart from the Pradesh Congress Committees the party has in every state.

The proposal has been submitted to the party top brass by AICC secretary Sreenivasan Krishnan.

"As part of the revival process, the Congress should think of setting up five Regional Pradesh Congress Committees (RPCC) across the country - one each for the North, South, East, West and North East regions," Sreenivasan told Onmanorama.

Sreenivasan said he was calling for regional bodies as the problems and challenges which the party and the people face in each of the regions are entirely different.

He said each RPCC should have current/former CMs, PCC presidents, Congress Legislative Party leaders and a few senior leaders from the region as its members.

"To exchange ideas and deliberate on regional issues the RPCC should meet once in three months, on a rotational basis, in the state capitals of the member states . A senior and experienced leader from the region should be appointed as the RPCC president with a tenure of not more than two years," he wrote in a Facebook post on the proposal.

Acknowledging that lack of regional leadership is one of the main challenges the Congress is facing in many areas, Sreenivasan said RPCCs would enable the party to develop effective state/regional leadership over a period of time.

Sreenivasan expressed hope that the AICC will discuss the proposal in detail.

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