Our Party conferences at district/state/all India level elect steering committees to conduct the schedule of conferences. Once steering committees are formed the entire organisational power is vested in them till the new committees are elected. In view of this, my questions are: if steering committee concept is so important, why it does not at all find a mention in the Party Constitution? The word "steering committee" is completely absent in the Party Constitution at least in the web version. The conference discusses the report by district committee/state committee/CC as the case may be. But steering committee consists of only the concerned secretariats or PB at all India level. Will it not be fully democratic if the DC/state committee/CC are elected as steering committee? A. Anwar Hussain, Trichy AS per the Party Constitution, it is the Party Committee which convenes the conference and decides on the agenda for the meeting. The mechanism of a Steering Committee is meant to ensure that the agenda set by the concerned committee, whether it be the state committee or the district committee, is taken up and the issues discussed and clinched by the conference. The role of the steering committee is, thus, to steer the conference as per the direction provided by the Party committee. That is why, generally the steering committee consists of the executing body of the committee – the secretariat which is itself elected by the committee. It is true, the Party Constitution does not mention the steering committee. It only mentions the presidium and credentials committee. As explained above, the steering committee is acting on behalf of the general committee and it also assists the presidium to conduct the conference on the basis of the decision and mandate given by the Party committee. It is not possible to have the entire district committee or state committee to act as a steering committee as it would be unwieldy. It is not possible for committees of the size of 45 to 75 to conduct the work in a business-like manner and within the time frame. The delegates of the conference elect the steering committee just as it does the presidium and the credentials committee. There is no hard and fast rule that only members of the secretariat should be in the steering committee. There is no bar in having a member in the steering committee who may be a member of the district or state committee, if it is felt that their presence is necessary for the effective functioning of the steering committee.