The Year 2025 was grandly declared as the year of the organisation by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
Half the year has passed. There is little or no movement.
In state after state the organization remains in suspended animation.
A number of senior leaders are squarely blaming K C Venugopal for this state of affairs. He is the General Secretary in charge of Organization but instead of focusing on the organisation he is always travelling with the Gandhis. Particularly Rahul Gandhi wherever he goes and whenever he goes.
He acts as his chief factotum.
Is it insecurity which dictates his decision to cling onto Rahul? It is Difficult to say.
The Congress has a complete realization that their weakest link is the organization, hence the resolve to put it right. But with Venugopal given over riding powers by Rahul Gandhi the entire issue is a non starter.
He is the only General Secretary in charge of the organisation who is constantly travelling with the Gandhis. That is neither his job nor his brief.
In the process the Congress organisation has been completely neglected with no state units in operation in state after state.
Mallikarjun Kharge has tried a number of times to fill up the vacancies but most of these efforts are reportedly scuttled by Venugopal. He has been known to discard the lists prepared by Kharge.
Interestingly most of Venugopal’s focus is on Kerala where he desires to become the Chief Minister and plan to eliminate most of his political rivals. The main attack is on Shashi Tharoor.
Venugopal was reportedly using the services of Jairam Ramesh and others to plant stories against Tharoor who is seen as an asset for the Congress by the rest of the world.
A number of stories against the Kerala leader are being planted by Congress leaders who are trying to curry favour with Venugopal by attacking Shashi Tharoor, Instead of building the organization, strengthening state units, exposing Narendra Modi for his sins of omission and commission, strategizing on how to win state elections and how to ultimately dethrone Narendra Modi. A number of senior leaders are spending all their time, energy and effort in attacking Tharoor and pushing him out of the party.
Tharoor is a small part of the big picture but for the likes of Venugopal, Tharoor is the big picture.
Senior leaders in the BJP say that Modi is the weakest at the moment but the Congress has failed to train its guns on Modi and the problems with the BJP and between the BJP-RSS.
The Congress has a complete realization that their weakest link is the organization, hence the resolve to put it right. But with Venugopal given over riding powers by Rahul Gandhi the entire issue is a non starter. 
Rahul Gandhi needs to focus on the party and the organisation if he wants to win elections, dethrone Modi and bring the Congress back on the centre stage of mainline politics. But who will bell the cat! (Read Venugopal)
Renu Mittal
Renu Mittal is a veteran Journalist of India. She is reporting on the Congress Party affairs since 1983.
