Will Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge walk the talk?

New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge continues to be the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Rajya Sabha, over three months after getting elected to the top party post.

As per the Udaipur declaration, he has to give up one post.

The grand old party announced major organisational reforms at its Udaipur ‘Chintan Shivir (brainstorming session)’ in May last year.

According to the Udaipur declaration adopted at the end of the session, the one-person, one-post norm would strictly be adopted in the organisation.

This was then hailed as a landmark decision.

The move will also send a signal that the Congress leadership is firm and serious about taking the party, which has witnessed a continued downward electoral slide since 2014, on the revival path.

Major organisational changes in the Congress are expected during and after the party’s day 85th plenary to be held at Raipur in Chhattisgarh for three days from February 24.

Apart from ratifying Kharge’s election as the party president, the plenary is also expected to witness for the first time in decades the polls to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the 138-year-old organisation.

During his campaign for the Congress president’s elections last year, Kharge had maintained that the Udaipur declaration is his manifesto and that he would implement it in letter and spirit after getting elected to the top party post.

It remains to be seen if Kharge will bite the bullet and take tough decisions to put the grand old party back on track.