New Delhi, Jan. 18: Away from the glare of Sonia Gandhi’s alliance-building engagements, the Congress has drawn up a plan to oil its election machinery.

The party is set to appoint 70-odd coordinators across the country, in addition to the usual election observers, who will oversee campaigning and funds flow and address internal issues like dissent.

Most of the All-India Congress Committee general secretaries, who are usually put in charge of states, are burdened with three to four states. The coordinators will be senior party members and a coordinator can have one, two or three states, depending on the size and population.

While small states are likely to have one coordinator, big states may have as many as three.

A political affairs committee is also being set up under the chairmanship of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Veteran leader Pranab Mukherjee, who was asked to go into the reasons for the electoral debacles in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, had mooted the panel in his recent report to Sonia.

An information manifesto committee set up to shortlist issues had met yesterday.

On Friday, Sonia summoned all chief ministers of Congress-ruled states, as well as the state party chiefs and leaders of the legislative wings to get first-hand information on the ground-level political situation in each state.

Many state leaders urged that the selection of candidates be completed as early as January 23, but this suggestion was rejected as more time was needed for the exercise.

The party is also contemplating some changes in the AICC and state Congress committees and an announcement is likely in a day or two. Sonia had said on Friday that there would be “chota mota” changes.

Congress insiders said the party president is not keen to launch a witch-hunt over the Assembly poll outcome. Though some individuals are said to be responsible to some extent for the Assembly poll debacles, she wants to replace them without humiliating them, they said.

A proposal under consideration is that those who want to contest the Lok Sabha elections should not hold AICC posts. If this criterion is implemented, leaders such as Kamal Nath, the general secretary in-charge of Orissa and Tamil Nadu, will have to forgo his post if he chooses to contest.

Leaders like Naval Kishore Sharma, who is in charge of Rajasthan and could not get along well with former chief minister Ashok Gehlot, and Mukul Wasnik, the general secretary in charge of frontal organisations like the NSUI and the Youth Congress, face similar situations.

The reallocation of work may see Sonia’s political secretary Ambika Soni losing either Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan.

Sources said two to three general secretaries may be dropped and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh may be put in charge of Uttar Pradesh or Rajasthan.