Sonia forms panel to prepare party agenda

NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday constituted a five-member committee to formulate the party’s stance on key ordinances promulgated by the central government.

A press release by party general secretary in charge of organisation KC Venugopal said Rajya Sabha members and former Union ministers P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh, Lok Sabha members Amar Singh and Gaurav Gogoi will be the five members of the panel.

Ramesh will be the convener of the committee, the release said.

The government is planning to bring in 11 ordinances in the 18-day monsoon session of Parliament beginning September 14. If any ordinance lapses, the government can re-promulgate it.

In another decision, Sonia Gandhi named former general secretary in charge of Rajasthan Avinash Pande as chairman of the party’s screening committee for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections.

Pande’s removal from Rajasthan was a key demand of party rebel legislators led by former state deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot.