Rahul Gandhi urges Congress leaders to shun groupism, make earnest efforts to connect with people

New Delhi: Congress Vice President  Rahul  Gandhi on Friday suggested a performance-based "reward and punishment system" in Congress to tone up functioning of the organisation ahead of the Lok  Sabha  polls.

At an interaction with PCC chiefs and CLP leaders here, Rahul Gandhi said that there is a need for "fixing some definite criteria for ticket distribution". Rahul Gandhi said that four to five criteria should be fixed to decide eligibility of a candidate for giving them tickets during elections. The Congress leader urged  the  leaders to shun groupism and make earnest efforts to connect with the people.

"Rahul Gandhi said that both reward and punishment will follow. Those working seriously should be rewarded. Tasks will also be given. He said you set three four commitments for yourselves and I will see after some time whether you have fulfilled them or not," a state leader, who attended the meeting, said.

Rahul Gandhi also told the state leaders that they should not work only from election point of view but also aim to strengthen the organisation. He said this while intervening during an interaction with the PCC chiefs and CLP leaders, which saw a total of 32 leaders expressing their views on the first day of the two-day exercise. "Everybody must realise his weaknesses and accept that. We can progress only then," he said during the interaction, which also involved issues like that of alliances in states, early resolution of  Telangana row, how to cope with regional parties and strategy to counter Narendra  Modi's  media campaign.

Rahul Gandhi said that if the party workers are vocal, then there will be not much need to counter such campaign on television or media.