Rahul Gandhi constitutes 'core group' ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday constituted a 9-member core group for 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Media Department headRandeep Surjewalaand KC Venugopal, MP from Kerala have found a place on the high table of the Congress Party. Both of them will be part of a group which constitutes of AK Antony, Ahmad Patel, Gulam Nabi Azad, Jairam Ramesh, Ashok Gehlot, Mallikarjun Kharge and P Chidambaram.

The last seven in one way or another were involved in hugely lost 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The core group does not have Anand Sharma who has been accommodated in manifesto and publicity committee.

Similarly, new faces have been inducted in the manifesto and publicity committees. The lateral entrants in the manifesto committee are Rahul Gandhi’s old-time aide Sachin Rao. The 19-member committee also includes Lalitesh Tripathi, Shashi Tharoor and Mukul Sangama.

The new entrant in the publicity committee is Divya Spandana who is head of social media head of the Congress Party. This group has accommodated Rajiv Shukla, Manish Tewari, Milind Deora, Pramod Tewari and others. The fresh face here is Jaiveer Shergil.

These changes are part and parcel of long series of changes which Rahul Gandhi is effecting in the organisation ahead of Lok Sabha elections.

It has seen a healthy mix of both old and young faces which earlier was being conceived impossible under his dispensation.