In May 2025, the Congress party announced its flagship Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan, the name given to its ambitious organisational rebuilding exercise, aimed at bringing more competent people into key positions in the party. Now, the party is planning to change its traditional inner functioning by creating a new department called the Sangathan Srijan Department (SSD). Its primary objective will be to strengthen the organisation and its grassroots connect with the masses.
“It will be the most powerful department in the Congress organisation,” a senior Congress leader privy to the development said. Consequently, the person heading the department will, by default, emerge as a prominent power centre.
After the defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, there had been whispers within the party that the Congress leadership was conceiving a department that could maintain the rebuilding of its grassroots connect and manage its elections efficiently.
On one prominent side, since 2025, the party has aggressively reshuffled people across its ranks and also started the changes at the high-command level by giving AICC in-charge positions to people who will be holding them for the first time. On the other side, there is a department being worked on that could plug the accountability crisis at the higher levels.
“The party has, by and large, streamlined the new structure for district presidents. Means how it will function and fix the accountability needs at the grassroots through district presidents,” a senior Member of Parliament said. “But there is no system in the party till now that can hold state unit presidents and AICC general secretaries and in-charges accountable.”
The new department will put an extra layer of management overseeing that the targets have been achieved and then which stage of the hierarchy needs to be fixed. Giving it powers to make necessary changes. To put in perspective, the new department will oversee the functioning of District Congress Committees, block-level committees, booth committees and all the frontal organisations.
The SSD will also have a greater say in election management and will be responsible for streamlining the party's coordination mechanism. It will also streamline reporting structures, monitor organisational performance and ensure that the party's grassroots machinery functions in a uniform and disciplined manner.
That could resolve one of the party's biggest crises—management and coordination. The party has often failed to control its legislators in the states, leading to regular fiascos in Rajya Sabha elections. It has also struggled to assess the candidates abilities sufficiently leading to poor performance on the electoral stage. The party has also been unable to keep its flock together in several states ecause of the understanding that there will be no immediate reward or punishment from the high command, exacerbating its internal divisions.
But when the new system will come in place, that organisational behaviour is going to change, according to a senior Congress leader.
“In Bihar, just months after giving tickets to leaders who wanted to contest on a Congress ticket, some of those who won cross-voted in the elections,” a senior leader said. “That is a cause of concern which can only be fixed by a proper structure, one in which everyone feels a part of it, and things can be smoothened out by better communication.”
As the party is working at multiple levels, the senior leaders believe that all the changes will happen this year so that the party goes with fresh approach to contest the next round of elections in more than half a dozen states.
