The exercise is big in scale but low on vision. This is blatantly visible in the composition of the Congress Working committee, the party’s apex policy making body. The exercise has raised eyebrows within the 125 year old political party as it is more dominated now by newcomers than the veterans.

In the 19 member CWC, there are just 4 Lok Sabha members. They include the Congress President Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Mukul Wasnik. Ten members of CWC are from Rajya Sabha including the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the remaining five are those who have lost elections.

Among the new faces inducted are Birendra Singh.from Haryana. An arch rival of the chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda he has been brought in to maintain the balance in the state factional politics. Dhani Ram Shandil is a nobody in his home state Himachal Pradesh. Just an acolyte of the Anand Bhawan,he joined the Congress seven years ago from Himachal Vikas Congress of Sukh Ram. He is a former MP. Madhusudhan Mistry is close to Ahmad Patel. Sushila Triya is a former MP and Hemo Provo Saikia lost in eletions.. She is the PM’s nominee in the CWC. Oscar Fernandes is also a new entrant to the CWC. P Chidambaram however fails to get a seat in the CWC. He has been brought in as Permanent invitee. The new entrants to the congress working committee Fernandes, Mistry, Saikia, Triya or Shandil have no personal appeal or support base in their respective state.

The process of easing out the 70 plus has also begun by demoting old loyalists from CWC to permanent invitees. Arjun Singh, the senior most CWC member whose death saved him from the shock in store for him was not the only one demoted from CWC to permanent invitee. The 70 plus Mohsina Kidwai, ML Fotedar, RK Dhawan , SC Jamir Shivaji Rao Deshmukh, Karan Singh were all in for a shock. They are all in the permanent invitee slot.

The meteoric rise of Mohan Prakash, a Janardhan Diwedi nominee who will rub shoulders with above mentioned party doyens as permanent invitee has raised eyebrows. He is a recent entrant to Congress. He joined the party in UPA1. Gulchain Singh Charak from Jammu has come from National Conference.

With an eye on elections in Uttar Pradesh IN 2012 the Congress leadership has ensured the entry of three Beni Prasad Verma, Raj Babbar and Nirmal Khatri in the top policy making body. Beni Prasad who came from Samajwadi party at the time of Lok Sabha elections was unhappy at being made an MOS. He has been appeased and prevented from leaving the party. Similarly Raj Babbar an ex Beni colleague in the SP has also been prevented from going back to Mulayam Singh Yadav. Nirmal Khatri a comparatively young Congress leader is not known for having any mass appeal. An upper caste khatri by caste, he has no relevance in Uttar Pradesh caste politics. Similarly Raj Babbar is unlikely to make any difference in the caste ridden politics of the state. Yes Beni is the only leader with some fast eroding OBC support base. But the OBCs have never voted for the Congress.

The party spokesperson Shakeel Ahmad’s induction as permanent invitee is the only saving grace as Sonia Gandhi has failed to give the Muslims their due in this reshuffle. With elections in five states this year and in UP next year Muslim votes are expected to hold the key. In West Bengal and Assam they would be the deciding factor. Similarly in UP all parties except for BJP are wooing the Muslims. In view of this Shakeel has been given charge of West Bengal

This reshuffle hahardly anything to offer the Muslims. Ghulam Nabi and Ahmad Patel are not identified as Muslim leders. Mohsina Kidwai has been demoted ad no Muslim has been accommodated from UP. Even among the secretaries those inducted Anees Ahmad from Maharashtra, Abdul Mannan Ansari or Irshad Beg or Shanimol Usman have no mass appeal to help raise the party fortunes in the forth coming assembly polls. They are of little relevance in their own states.

Another setback was the sacking of the party secretary Shakeeluzaman Ansari. An OBC muslim from Bihar, he had grown from the NSUI to Youth Congress to Bihar PCC to being a minister in Bihar, has been removed on charges made by Mukul Wasnik . Wasnik however has been retained despite accusations of corruption against him during elections.

The party has also failed to keep its promise of one man one post. While Union ministers Narayan Swamy, Veerappa Moily lost their party posts, Mukul Wasnik and Ghulam Nabi Azad continue to hold dual posts.

Among the 29 secretaries, Sanjay Nirupam again an ex Shiv Sainik is new comer. Most of them are nominees of either Ahmad Patel or Janardhan Diwedi or Digvijay Singh... Except for Jitender Singh and dalit ex youth Congress President Ashok Tanwar and Meenakshi Natarajan, there is no Rahul impact visible. Digvijay could get Raj Babbar, Beni Prasad Verma (permanent invitees) Pervez Hashmi and Vivek Bansal (secretaries) The man to watch is however Janardhan Diwedi who has managed to not only save his own post but also get many of his close confidantes inducted at all levels. Mohan Prakash, Nirmal Khatri, Sanjay Nirupam and even some more are known to be his nominees in the new Sonia Team. The rest brownie points go to Ahmad Patel. It is his team. He continues to be the most powerful man in Congress after Sonia Gandhi or Manmohan Singh. (IPA Service)