Panel for Congress revival

Defence Minister AK Antony will head a seven-member high level group constituted by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to suggest ways to revive the party.

The move came in the wake a series of electoral reverses including the latest one in Karnataka and ahead of the crucial assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and J&K and the Lok Sabha polls thereafter.

Union ministers PR Dasmunsi, Mani Shanker Aiyar, J&K Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, ACC general secretaries Digvijay Singh and Mukul Wasnik and Madhya Pradesh leader Urmila Singh are other members of the panel that will have to give its report in 15 days.

The party is hoping to achieve in the next four to eight months what it has not been able to do for the last four years since it came to power at the Centre.