Party above all

Meenakshi Natarajan is keen on strengthening the party from the grassroot level. The plan is to enage 44,000 well-trained activists and take the party to the next level

■ Meenakshi Natarajan’s bid to putting an end to authoritarianism

■ The goal is to take Congress to the shores of victory in the upcoming elections

■ Aiming for a second term in power in the state and winning more MP seats, with action plans already underway

■ Meenakshi Natarajan is engaged in the task of training 40,000 activists 

metro india news I hyderabad

Whether one is the Chief Minister, TPCC President, or anyone else, the party comes first… The aim is to put a check on the days when people claim “I am the boss of the constituency” and “Without me, the party cannot win in the state.” This is the goal of Congress party’s state affairs in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan.

Is she moulding everyone in such a way that the party is supreme, that she herself and everyone else are only members, and that whoever it may be must bow to the party’s decisions? Party sources say yes.  Meenakshi Natarajan, a member of party senior leader Rahul Gandhi’s team, has been carrying out party programmes in her own style ever since she took charge as in-charge.

She is said to be keen on building the party into an invincible force at the grassroots level. Moreover, with the goal of taking the Congress party once again to the shores of victory in the upcoming elections—even though the elections are still two years away—she has already prepared an action plan and is engaged in the yajna of training as many as 40,000 well-trained activists, according to party sources.

Party workers say she is silently working to instil party ideals such as Gandhism and satyagraha among the ranks. It is well known that the Congress party’s aim is to see Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister of the country in the next elections. That is why the AICC has prepared an action plan and is moving forward to retain power once again in the states where the party is currently in power—Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, and Himachal Pradesh.

 In Telangana, which has 17 parliamentary seats, the aim is to win a few more MP seats in addition to the present 8. Similarly, if the party comes to power again in the state, it can not only win MP seats in the next Lok Sabha elections but also mobilise financial resources for other states in the country, according to the party’s thinking.  In line with the goals set by the party, she has been preparing and implementing action plans ever since she took charge.

Before Meenakshi Natarajan assumed responsibility, party programmes were centred around individuals. Noticing this, she has been taking step-by-step measures to strengthen the party. While cooperating with Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on the government front, she is strictly implementing AICC directives on the party front.  Until then, only party district and constituency committees existed. Mandal committees were largely non-functional.

The party was under the control of constituency in-charges and MLAs. After she came, she focused on party committees. There is talk that, except in constituencies of MLAs who switched parties and Dalit MLAs, in the remaining constituencies efforts are being made to entrust responsibilities only to those with seniority in the party and those who have worked for the party. 

A party leader said that, along with TPCC state, district, constituency, and mandal committees, as well as parliamentary in-charges, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls—state coordinator, district coordinators, booth-level agents (BLAs), booth-level supervisors (BLS), BRs, TPCC-affiliated organisations, and their local committees—nearly 40,000 activists are being trained as skilled workers. He said the SIR programme has come as a boon for strengthening the party. 

As part of keeping the party ranks alert, party ideals are also being propagated in the programmes taken up at the village level. Earlier it was not the case, but now a system has been put in place where information reaches thousands of activists with just one call. Moreover, the members in these committees alone are sufficient in thousands for organising any meeting, they said. Hundreds of WhatsApp groups, Instagram, Facebook, and X forums are being used to disseminate party state and national information. She is filling the gap of the party not having a news channel or newspaper through social media, they said.

Furthermore, the TPCC Coordination Committee meeting held in Delhi is cited as an example of the party being supreme. Deciding that future government programmes in the state should first be discussed and decided in the Coordination Committee meeting is also part of her strategy, they say. In this meeting, she expressed her views on the party frankly.

Until now, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, and the Cabinet used to discuss and announce new schemes. Henceforth, decisions will have to be announced only after discussion in the Coordination Committee. There was criticism that schemes announced directly by the government were not reaching the people; therefore, by deciding to announce development and welfare programmes after discussion in the party, the party’s importance will increase, and workers are happy about it.