Antony to head group to 're-energise' Congress

{image-congress symbol_04062008.jpg news.oneindia.in}New Delhi, June 4: Disturbed by its electoral reverses in Karnataka, Congress president Sonia Gandhi today constituted a seven-member group headed by Defence Minister A K Antony to give suggestions to 'revitalise' the party to effectively take on its rivals in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly polls in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

Other members of the group are : former Madya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, Union Ministers P R Dasmunsi and Mani Shankar Aiyar, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, AICC General Secretary Mukul Wasnik and Ms Urmila Singh. The group has been asked to submit its report within the next 15 days.

The group was constituted on the basis of a decision taken at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) here on May 31. The CWC mainly discussed the party's debacle in Karnataka Assembly elections.

The nomination of Mr Antony to head the panel shows the increasing clout of the three-time Kerala Chief Minister in the party's organisational matters.

''The group will give suggestions to re-energise the party machinery in view of the coming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections,'' Mr Janardhan Dwivedi, AICC General Secretary in charge of organisational matters, said here today.

While the Lok Sabha elections are due early next year, the states of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir are likely to go to polls in November this year.

UNI