The Congress is trying to present a united and confident face amid their party’s ongoing organisational change process, as party sources said that the reshaping exercise is going on smoothly and will be accomplished by April 2026.
“They have actually acknowledged the need for change in the organisation and are now gearing up organizationally to counter the ruling party, the BJP,” was the surprise reaction from the senior leaders after veteran party general secretary Digvijay Singh pointed out organisational shortcomings in Congress.
As per sources from the party, the Congress has launched a new and transparent method of choosing district unit chiefs, unlike previous methods. The district chiefs are charged with rebuilding the party from the booth level and energising the organisation at the grass-roots level.
The plan to revamp the party was approved by the Congress president, Mallikarjun Kharge, and the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, after numerous discussions among the more than 600 heads of the district units. Gujarat is the first state where the appointment of chiefs of the district units began, and this is followed by several other states.
As the year 2025 is drawing to a close, the appointment of new chiefs for almost 500 districts is now complete, and the remaining ones will be finalized by April 2026. The comments made by Digvijay Singh on the organisational setup of the BJP and RSS, which he made on Twitter and later reaffirmed at the Working Committee meeting of the Congress, have led to some internal discussion and raised quite a few eyebrows in the party, despite which he clarified that he is still opposed to the BJP and its politics.
Reacting quickly to the criticism, the AICC secretary in charge of Maharashtra, BM Sandeep, stated, “There is nothing for the Congress to learn from the BJP. It will jeopardize the basics of the Congress party to model the BJP.” “If we want to learn things from them, our politics of inclusiveness, our pro-poor agenda, and our internal democracy will get eliminated,” Sandeep said in an interview with Indoeuronews.
“The Congress is working for the Constitution, the nation, and the people.” Sandeep, who has been working as an observer for the AICC in district nominations in Gujarat, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu, said that the shake-up was already producing good results.
“The Congress is the only party with workers at the village level in the entire country. We would not have won 99 Lok Sabha seats in the election of 2024 and formed governments in Karnataka, Telangana, and Himachal Pradesh without an organisation,” he said, attributing the drubbings in the recent elections to “vote theft.”
Sources in the party said the overhaul, which is being closely watched by Rahul Gandhi, is purposefully done gradually so as to establish credibility and transparency. Mr. Gandhi has even networked with the newly elected district party heads in Gujarat, Haryana, and M.P. and has attended training sessions there. The secretary of the AICC in charge of Haryana, Jitendra Baghel, has pointed out that contrastingly, the changes in the organization can already be seen in the fact that their districts have taken the lead in agitations and movements relating to issues like the theft of their vote and protecting their Constitution. “The organization is working according to the Congress ideology. The outcome will be observed later,” said Baghel, again asserting that the party had “nothing to learn from the BJP.”