Rahul’s call for diversity in party positions takes shape on ground

The former Congress president’s call to promote equitable share of party positions among various weaker sections comes at a time when the party is gearing up a number of important panels.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s call for increased representation of Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), other weaker sections and women in various arms of the party has slowly begun to reflect in some of the recent decisions of the party.

**EDS: HANDOUT PHOTO MADE AVAILABLE FROM AICC ON SATURDAY, JULY 2, 2022** Wayanad: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addresses the MGNREGA Workers' Meet at Koliyadi, in Wayanad. (PTI Photo)(PTI07_02_2022_000252B) (PTI)

The former Congress president’s call to promote diverse and equitable share of party positions among various weaker sections comes at a time when the party is gearing up a number of important panels, including the election management committee, and making changes to some of its existing ones, a senior party functionary told HT.

“The list of Congress national spokespersons is also likely to be revamped,” the functionary said, requesting anonymity.

Recently, the Congress appointed Priyank Kharge, a Dalit, to head its communications team in Karnataka. The team is co-chaired by Mansoor Ali Khan, a member of the minority community. Of the 20 Congress leaders who on Saturday held press conferences across the country on the alleged terror links with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), at least four were women.

In the past two weeks, Gandhi has met a host of party leaders and two of them told HT that the former party chief was “serious” about more projection of women, SC/ST and other backward castes leaders in various roles.

“He is also equally serious about gender parity. He wants more women occupy important positions and more women in the list of national spokespersons,” said one of the leaders cited above.

In his speech during the party’s Chintan Shivir in Udaipur in May, Gandhi had referred to the lack of conversation in BJP-ruled India—an allegation he has often made against the current regime— and gave example of Yashpal Arya, who switched over to the Congress last year, to underline how the Congress treasures diversity.

“Many of our leaders who returned to the party fold have told me exactly what the BJP allows them to say and doesn’t allow them to say. Arya Ji told me that as a Dalit in the BJP, he had no place,” Gandhi had said.

Politically, the Congress’s push for more space for SC/ST, other backward castes and women is seen as the party’s bid to woo these sections ahead of the 2024 general elections and comes at a time when the BJP is also aggressively trying to get them in its corner.

The NDA’s candidate for the July 18 presidential election, Draupadi Murmu—who is set to become the first tribal woman President of the country—is seen as a masterstroke to reach out to tribal voters who play a key role in Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Odisha, North Eastern states and parts of West Bengal and Chhattisgarh. In the last presidential election in 2017, the Narendra Modi-led NDA nominated Ram Nath Kovind, a Dalit, in yet another move to woo the vast SC population.