Name 5 best workers, 1 Congress mistake: Rahul, Priyanka quiz AICC secretaries

Tuesday's interaction focused less on routine performance and more on the secretaries' outlook, personality, communication skills and ideological clarity, Congress sources told India Today.

In Short

• Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi assess 64 Congress functionaries
• Focus is on outlook, communication and ideology over routine performance
• Congress aims to replace half of secretaries for organisational strength

From naming the five best Congress workers in their assigned states to describing the role of an AICC secretary in one word, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra put 64 party functionaries through an unusual assessment at 10 Janpath on Tuesday.

Sources said the incumbent All India Congress Committee secretaries were divided into four batches. The first group met Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Congress general secretary KC Venugopal around 11 am.

The exercise came nearly a week after the Congress leadership interviewed around 130 candidates for the post of AICC secretary.

AICC secretaries are assigned to states and work with general secretaries and state in-charges to oversee the party’s organisational affairs.

The Congress is likely to replace around half of its existing AICC secretaries as part of an effort to induct new faces and strengthen its organisation.

Tuesday’s interaction, however, focused less on routine performance and more on the secretaries’ outlook, personality, communication skills and ideological clarity, sources said.

Each secretary was asked around five or six questions and expected to answer individually and directly.

The questions included:

What is one mistake the Congress has made that needs to be corrected?

Who are the five best Congress workers in your assigned state?

Name the three best AICC secretaries and explain your choices.

Describe the work of an AICC secretary in one word.

What is right and what is wrong in your assigned state?

Sources said that the Gandhi siblings repeatedly asked the secretaries to keep their responses “to the point” and avoid digressions. Some answers appeared to leave the two leaders puzzled, they added.

An AICC secretary who attended the meeting said the leadership already had detailed information about their performance through monthly reports submitted to Venugopal.

“We submit our monthly work reports to KC Venugopal. They already have a fair amount of information about our performance, the programmes we have initiated and the number of visits to our assigned states,” the secretary said.

“I guess it was more about understanding the approach of an AICC secretary towards a given task," the office bearer added.

The review also assessed how the secretaries viewed their colleagues. Some participants hesitated when asked to identify the three best AICC secretaries and explain their choices, fearing that naming colleagues could be seen as displaying bias.

The individual interactions form part of the Congress’s wider organisational overhaul before it appoints a new set of AICC secretaries.

- Ends