Congress president Sonia Gandhi will reconstitute the AICC before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh restructures the Cabinet. This was indicated by the party here on Tuesday.
“AICC will be reconstituted during the Budget Session itself,” highly-placed sources said virtually delinking this exercise from the proposed Cabinet reshuffle the PM wants to undertake after the Budget Session.
Currently, as many as six Union ministers are handling organisational works. They are Mr A.K. Antony, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mr Mukul Wasnik, Mr M. Veerappa Moily, Mr V. Narayansamy and Mr Jairam Ramesh.
Besides, the Congress Working Committee and the party’s central election committee too have not been reconstituted after Mrs Gandhi’s re-election as the party chief for the third time consecutively.
Sources said “one man, one post” principle may not strictly be followed this time because of the impending Assembly elections in five states. Mr Azad is the in-charge of the party affairs in Tamil Nadu.
The re-constitution of the central election committee is necessary because it has to shortlist the party nominee in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry.
While the Congress is optimistic of sharing power with the DMK in Tamil Nadu if it retains power after the polls, it has undecided this issue in West Bengal where the Trinamul Congress is confident of making history by defeating the Left Front.
The Congress has been out of power in these states for three to four decades.
Significantly, the Congress would be fighting elections in three key states — Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala — in an alliance with the DMK, Trinamul and the UDF.
But the Congress is expected to appoint a full-fledged general secretary to look after the party affairs in West Bengal before the assembly elections.
The party high command has not taken any decision about PCC chiefs in Maharashtra, Mumbai Regional Congress, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir.