Cong looking at Blair ideas for reviving party

The Congress, which has so far failed to get a majority on its own at the Centre after 1984, plans to borrow a leaf from the way former British prime minister Tony Blair had revived the Labour party. A Congress committee charged with arriving at a strategy to deal with future challenges is close to presenting a report on this.

The Future Challenges Group, a new concept introduced by the Congress at its last meeting, is going into the issue and party leader M Veerappa Moily who heads it, hailed the way Blair effected a turnaround for the British Labour Party to make it a dominant force in the country.

Through his new ideas, Blair had made Labour a vibrant organisation which has now been in the saddle for the past decade after remaining in opposition for several years. A senior leader who is a member of the panel, said the report deals with how to democratise, broad-base the party and make it more transparent. 8220;The report would help the Congress president in taking fast and accurate decisions, an area where the party has been found to be lacking,8221; he said.