Pradesh Congress Committees

A meeting was held recently to discuss the mobilisation of Biharis residing in large numbers in the Mumbai-Thane belt.

MPCC vice-president and spokesman Hussain Dalwai told PTI that the committee would comprise seven to eight members. They would reach out to the Bihari population settled in Maharashtra and utilise them for campaigning in the polls.

MPCC president Manikrao Thakre, while speaking at the meeting, stressed the need for Congress to form the next government in Bihar so that infrastructure development which has begun with the funds from central government is expedited at the earliest.

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) General Secretary and MLC Sanjay Dutt who has been appointed as the Chief Co-ordinator of the AICC co-ordination centre for the elections said that meeting will be held in Delhi. He also said that party's election plank would be stability and development of the state.

Dutt said the party will be deputing observer district wise and assembly constituency wise who will be campaigning in their assigned areas to co-ordinate implementation of the party agenda and also assimilate grass root feedback based on which campaign strategy will be decided upon by the party high command.

Congress also plans to organise public meetings and rallies of party president Sonia Gandhi, General secretary Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and other senior party leaders in different parts of the state.

He said the morale of the cadre is very high over the decision that the Congress will go alone in the elections. "Wasnik toured Bihar for four days last week and got a positive feedback," Dutt said.

Most of the non-Gujjars appear to be against the idea of selecting a Gujjar, as the post was held by Brahmvati Khatana, a Gujjar, in the last House. Also, members of the Gujjar community had been holding the post for the past 10 years. President of the Faridabad Congress Committee BR Ojha, however, said the focus should not be on caste and community, rather on the merit of the prospective candidate.

Even as the race hots up for the post, all eyes are on Congress leader Mukesh Sharma, who has been elected the councillor along with his mother Maya Sharma. Mukesh, who is considered as the seniormost leader, is Shiv Charan Sharma's son.

The principal Opposition party, the INLD, is canvassing on the plank of "failure" of the government on all fronts. Organising secretary of the Haryana Congress and former president of the district unit Gulsan Bagga claimed that it was the image of the Chief Minister coupled with the development works done by his government which will enable the Congress to win the civic polls.

With regard to Faridabad, he said Faridabad was way behind other cities in terms of development on account of its "deliberate" neglect by non-Congress governments.

With regard to complaints of short supply of water and electricity, he said these problems were not new but the Congress government was taking effective steps to deal with these.

The BJP's district Faridabad president, Gopal Sharma, and the district head of the INLD, Anita Goswami, ridiculed the claims of the the Congress. They said the civic amenities were poor and the officialdom had no fear of the authorities.

The Opposition also criticised the Congress government for "betraying" the voters by re-imposing the house tax it had abolished during its previopus tenure.

"The Left Front government should have quit at the time of the Lok Sabha elections itself. They have lost the moral right to be in power; it is surprising that they have not done so," said Pradip Bhattacharya, working president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC).

Even if it is a three-way contest, the Left parties are sure to fare poorly in the upcoming elections. Should that happen, they should quit the government and ask for early elections, he said.

At the release of the Trinamool Congress election manifesto for the upcoming civic elections on Thursday, Ms. Banerjee had said that her party would demand elections if it manages a majority and it was her calculation that the Left Front government will be shown the door in October this year.

Confident that his party was prepared to go to polls if elections were held in October, Mr. Bhattacharya said every political party had the right to demand elections but it should be done keeping all Constitutional provisions in mind.

"The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front government is losing ground in West Bengal. Anyone can demand that polls be held in the State," said Manas Bhunia, leader of the Congress Legislative Party in the West Bengal Assembly.

Elections to 81 municipalities including Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) scheduled on May 30 are being viewed as particularly significant given the crucial Assembly polls due next year.

There has been, so far, little indication that the Trinamool Congress, riding high on successes in various elections in more recent times, has taken any major initiative to break the gridlock over seat-sharing with its smaller alliance partner, the Congress.

A message from the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) to Trinamool Congress chief, Mamata Banerjee, on April 13 seeking a date for discussions to sort out differences over sharing of seats for the 141-ward KMC remains unanswered. The last meeting in this regard was held on April 9.

Questions are being raised within a section of the State Congress leadership on the fate of the electoral alliance with Ms. Banerjee yet to show any signs of willingness to sit with State-level leaders of the party to sort out the impasse.

Source: The Hindu By Marcus Dam Little progress in Congress, Trinamool seat-sharing talks

A senior office-bearer of the Haryana Congress said the move also had the blessings of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Hooda is said to have expressed his desire to Congress leaders in favour of forging ties between the party organisation and the government in order to give a boost to the party workers and strengthen the party.

Mullana will also propagate the message of the Chief Minister to the party functionaries during his proposed visits to the districts.

Apparently, the Haryana Congress appears to have drawn an inspiration from the leadership of General Secretary of the All-India Congress Committee Rahul Gandhi with regard to increasing the roots of the party among the youth and women.

<b>source: The Tribune</b><a href=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100402/haryana.htm#11> <I>Haryana Congress To Strengthen Base, To Focus On Youth, Women</i></a>

"In some municipalities discussion on seat-sharing between the Congress and the TC has started and in some others it is likely to commence soon. We are hopeful that we will be able to reach a decision shortly," Mukherjee, also the Union finance minister, who held a meeting with district committee presidents to review seat-sharing talks, told reporters.

He said unlike in the Assembly or Lok Sabha polls, the seat-sharing talks for the municipal elections had been left to the district level leaderships of both the parties.

PCC insiders said Congress' Nadia District president Shankar Singh told the meeting that Congress can fight the polls in the district on its own because it was a greater political force than the TC there.

To a question Mukherjee admitted that there were problems in the tie-up arrangement in Murshidabad and Nadia districts, but was hopeful of a solution.

"I do not think it will come in the way (of a tie-up between Congress and TC) in Nadia and Murshidabad districts."

The Congress retained both Rajya Sabha seats as their nominees Nazneen Farooq and sitting Rajya Sabha member Silvius Condpan secured the required number of votes with the help of Opposition members. All Indian Mahila Congress secretary Farooq bagged 43 first preference votes while Condpan scraped through with 42 votes.

Opposition nominee Jayanta Baruah -- who had the backing of the AGP, BJP, AIUDF, Left parties and ASDC -- polled votes of 40 of the 126 legislators. One vote was declared invalid.

"It was a murder of democracy and naked display of money power to buy votes," BJP national general secretary and chief spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told journalists after completion of the polls. Prasad said his party has asked the Speaker to disqualify the four BJP rebels who defied the party whip and voted for the Congress. A visibly shocked BJP has already suspended the four recalcitrant members -- Sambhu Singh Manna, Rumi Nath, Kartik Sen Sinha and Abhijit Hazarika.

Two AIUDF legislators -- Anwarul Haq and Rasul Haq -- and AGP MLA Abdul Aziz have also been suspended for going against party line.

Meanwhile, AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal alleged that the Congress had paid between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 5 crore for each Opposition vote and warned its recipients that they would soon repent for their actions, as most of the money was `fake notes'.

The Congress dismissed the Opposition's allegations. "Where is the question of horse-trading when legislators from Opposition parties openly declared their decision of voting for our party?" Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi sought to know.

Former leader of the now disbanded Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) and incumbent chief of the BTC Hagrama Mohilary has made it clear that in view of opposition from party workers, the BPF has decided not to go for a seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress in the BTC polls scheduled for April 9. The BPF had earlier agreed to leave out some seats to the Congress for contesting the BTC polls in response to the ruling party's gesture of accommodating three BPF MLAs as cabinet ministers in Congress-led Assam government.

The BTC was formed as a result of the Bodo Accord signed between the now disbanded BLT and the Government of India on February 11, 2003. The BLT leaders floated Bodo People's Front (BPF) and came to power in the BTC following the first election to the council in 2005. The Congress did not contest that round of BTC poll to facilitate former militants' rehabilitation in the BTC.

However, the ruling party, which struck an alliance with the BPF after 2006 Assembly election in Assam, wanted to regain foothold in the Bodo tribe areas by contesting the forthcoming the BTC polls as an ally of the BPF. The support of 11 BPF MLAs is vital for survival of the Gogoi government in Assam as the ruling party has only 57 MLAs of its own in the 126-member Assam Assembly.

However, the BPF party workers who do not consider the Congress as an ally because of the latter's opposition to the BPF's demand for a separate Bodoland state, put their foot down and forced the BPF leadership to shed their plan to have alliance with Congress in BTC poll.

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also the president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, held a meeting with senior State leaders of the party here on Monday where matters related to seat-sharing with the Trinamool Congress for the civic polls were discussed.

Later, asserting that the Congress-Trianmool Congress remains intact, Mr. Mukherjee told journalists that municipality and panchayat elections have their "own distinctive compulsions" unlike the Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections.

Both parties had agreed to seat adjustments in the Lok Sabha elections last year as well as in the two phases of by-elections for 12 State Assembly seats and for some municipal elections that followed the parliamentary elections.

The forthcoming municipal elections are being perceived as a litmus test for both the ruling Left Front in the State and the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance ahead of the State Assembly elections due next year.

Asked about the recent visit to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee by another senior PCC leader Subrata Mukherjee, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee said that visit was mainly to discuss the seat-sharing process and nothing else should be read into it.

Rumours were doing the rounds that Subrata Mukherjee, formerly a Trianmool Congress leader and the Mayor of Kolkata before he fell out with Ms. Banerjee and joined the Congress, visited her with the intention of re-joining the party and seek the mayoral candidature.

Leaders of both parties separately met newly-appointed West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan and alleged that a reign of terror had been unleashed in most districts by the CPM while the police looked the other way. They said after the CPM's defeats in the Lok Sabha and other elections, it had launched a massive "area capturing drive" by driving out TC and Congress workers and supporters from the localities.

The CPM, which began a three-day special meeting of the state committee at its Alimuddin Street office yesterday, rejected the demand for advancing the Assembly polls. Party secretary Biman Bose said the election would be held as schedule, some time in May-June 2011. He counter-alleged that the TC and the Congress were trying to create law and order problems in order to advance the poll. He said TC activists and Maoists were now jointly operating in several areas in south Bengal districts and attacking and killing CPM cadres and supporters.

Railway minister and TC supremo Mamata Banerjee said the party was not demanding application of Article 356, but a fresh elections in the state since the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government had lost the people's support. She alleged that during the past 32 years of Left rule, cadres had kept busy amassing enormous wealth and assets by misusing official machinery.

Talking to mediapersons, he said the target would be achieved and 6-7 lakh more members would join the party by New Year.

He said AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi has given a new direction to the Youth Congress by putting in place elected bodies at all levels.

Favouring elected students unions in colleges and universities, Chokhar said legal provision should be made to debar students with criminal and anti-social background from contesting the elections to students' bodies.

Expressing confidence that the Congress will win the Ellenabad byelection, Chokhar said the party lost due to the internal bickering in the last elections. The party was fully geared up and united this time and there was no scope for any other party to defeat the Congress, he claimed.

When asked about his plans to contest the elections in future, he said: "If given a chance by the party high command, I will definitely like to contest the elections in future."

The party today said it would introduce National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)-like model for the urban bodies to generate guaranteed employment for youths in the cities.

The scheme will be drawn from the NREGA and will offer 100-day guaranteed job to the unemployed youths in the urban areas, member of Congress election manifesto committee Ramesh Varlyani said. The party today released the manifesto for the civic body elections in the state.

"The scheme will be introduced on an experimental basis in Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC), and if it yields results, the scheme will be replicated in eight other municipal corporations in the state," said Varlyani.

Translated from the Punjabi: "I do not consume alcohol or any other intoxicant."

Patiala District Congress Committee president Prem Krishan Puri confirmed the form requires applicants to make the declaration.But he did not want to press the point.

"Many senior leaders who have become members yet again, do drink," conceded Puri. "It is their conscience... the party cannot do anything about it."

Said a senior Punjab Congress leader: "Do you think that the crores of party workers and members in the country have given up drinking?" The membership drive will continue till December 31, the last date for submitting the form.
"Already, 45 lakh forms have been distributed in the state. We are expecting around 50 lakh new members," said Congress Legislature Party leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal.

She conceded the declaration in the form meant little."I would be lying if I said that all these 45 lakh people are teetotalers.If our senior leaders can drink, why can't these new members?" Bhattal said.