Winter session: Congress to devise new strategy for floor management, coordination

With Rahul Gandhi set to skip the winter session of Parliament due to the Bharat Jodo Yatra and Sonia Gandhi unlikely to get involved in dayto-day floor management, it will be a new chapter for the Congress party in daily management of issues as well as coordination with other opposition parties in the upcoming session.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will continue as the leader of the opposition, as will Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as the party leader in the Lok Sabha.

“But the upcoming session will not see Rahul in an active role after a long gap. Similarly, Sonia Gandhi, who remains the Congress parliamentary party chief, might not get involved in daily issues after the election of the new party president,” a senior functionary said, seeking anonymity.

Along with Rahul Gandhi, Congress’ Rajya Sabha chief whip Jairam Ramesh and senior leader Digvijaya Singh, too, will be absent most of the time. They are an important part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Their absence, particularly of Jairam’s, who is the party’s key parliamentary strategist, will require additional workforce from the Congress.

“Newly elected Rajya Sabha leader Rajiv Shukla will play an important role as a backroom boy in this upcoming parliamentary session for the Congress,” said the leader cited above. “Shukla, one of the few leaders with good rapport across party lines, is best suited to help Kharge in floor management.”

In the Lok Sabha, Chowdhury, Gaurav Gogoi, Manish Tewari and Kodikunnil Suresh might be part of the team to coordinate with other political parties, said another leader. Rahul Gandhi in the past few years took active interest in the Congress’ parliamentary outreach. On August 3 last year, he hosted a breakfast meeting with all opposition leaders, which was widely seen as his first attempt to emerge as the key face for the entire opposition.

Sonia, too, often called meetings of senior leaders to decide a collective stand on issues.