India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The 83rd All India Congress Committee (AICC) plenary session to be held at Burari on December 18,19 and 20, is likely to come out with three declarations/resolutions - political, economic and foreign affairs. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has appointed the drafting committee for the plenary session. Senior party leader and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will head the 22-member committee. Arjun Singh, A.K. Antony, Anand Sharma, Digvijay Singh, Hemanand Biswal, Janardan Dwivedi, Jaipal Reddy, Jairam Ramesh, Veerappa Moily, Mohsina Kidwai, Mukul Wasnik, P. Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Salman Khurshid, Vayalar Ravi, Amrinder Singh, C.P. Joshi, C.K. Jaffer Sharief, Mani Shankar Aiyar and Lalthanhawla are the other members. Antony, Shinde, Azad, Girja Vyas, Mukut Mithi and Madhusudan Mistry will prepare the draft of the political resolution. Rahul Gandhi is a prominent member of the draft committee of the AICC that will finalize the party's political line. Pranab Mukherjee, Chidambaram, Digvijay Singh, Vyalar Ravi, Jairam Ramesh, Mallikarjun Kharge and Namo Narayan Meena will prepare the draft for the economic resolution. Annad Sharma, Karan Singh, Ambika Soni, Saifuddin Soz and Salman Khursheed will prepare the draft for the foreign policy resolution. A special resolution will be drafted to highlight and hail the 125th anniversary of the Congress party. With UPA-II facing a credibility crisis on several issues, including corruption and maladministration, the AICC plenary is being seen as important for the future plans of the party. Having been drubbed in the recently held Bihar state assembly polls, and faced by a possible of popular support in Andhra Pradesh in the wake of Y.S.Jaganmohan Reddy's exit from the party, the Congress hopes to chalk out a credible strategy to counter the opposition both in Parliament and outside of it. The party's focus will also be on the forthcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. This is the second plenary after the Congress-led UPA came to power in 2004 and the first after the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, in which the coalition retained power with Congress crossing the 200 mark in the 543-member Lok Sabha after a gap of over 15 years. The last plenary was held in Hyderabad in 2006. The Subjects Committee headed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi will clear the resolutions on the first day of the plenary.

Sonia Gandhi appoints three drafting bodies for Burari AICC Plenary Session