The move has come amid growing criticism from workers and supporters over the lack of change in party organisation and the continued dominance of the same faces in key positions.
As part of the exercise, the party is in the process of finalising names of 72 district presidents across the state, and in a significant departure from past practices, the campaign will also include appointments at the taluka level, covering 675 talukas.
Under the new model, taluka Congress presidents will be appointed along with heads of 10 frontal organisations and departments at each taluka, including Youth Congress, NSUI, Mahila Congress and Seva Dal, as well as representatives from OBC, SC, ST, VJNT, minority and social media wings.
For the first time in the history of the organization, the party is selecting its taluka president, an initiative of state unit chief Harshwardhan Sapkal.
“Sapkal convinced the central leadership to allow selection of block presidents from this Sanghtan Srujan process. The innovative experiment will help in regaining grassroots base. Earlier, only district presidents were appointed and they would then appoint the block presidents, which often resulted in groupism,” state Congress spokesperson Hanumant Pawar said.
State observers have been tasked with recommending at least three names for each post, with the final decision to be taken by the party leadership. The initiative is expected to provide organisational responsibilities to more than 7,000 party workers, significantly widening the leadership base within the party.Leaders said the revamp is part of a broader push led by Rahul Gandhi to rejuvenate the party by drawing inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi and strengthening its connect with grassroots workers.
“The exercise will prioritise youth leadership and aim to enhance representation of OBCs, Dalits, Adivasis, minorities and women in the organisational structure. Congress will work on two principles for next few years. One is building organization on basis of ideology and fighting for people’s problems due to failures of the Union and Maharashtra governments,” Sapkal said.
It will also strengthen the party for the 2029 (assembly and Lok Sabha) polls, he added.
Presidents of 45 of 60 organisational districts of the party in the state are set to be replaced, while chiefs of 12 newly created organisational districts will be appointed.
The party has set a target to appoint around 8,000 new office bearers, including district and taluka presidents, within the next two months, Sapkal said.
“The Congress is currently implementing the ‘Sangathan Srujan’ (organizational restructuring) programme in Maharashtra. For this, one observer from Delhi has been sent to each district. These observers will submit panels of names for the new presidents to the central leadership, which will then finalize the appointments,” he said.
All those who have served as district presidents for five years or more will be replaced with new faces.
“There is no opposition to making new appointments. Leaders who have held the post for many years are themselves insisting that new faces should be given a chance. The objective is not to remove existing district presidents, but to provide opportunities to new leadership,” Sapkal asserted.
