Pradesh Congress Committees

Welcoming the Central Election Commission's announcement of dates for the Delhi Assembly elections, Jai Prakash Agarwal said that the Congress would declare name of its candidates in the end of October. Last date for filing of nominations is November 11.

He said that scrutiny of candidates for 25 constituencies has been finalised. Once it is finalised for all 70 constituencies, it would be sent to the AICC to select the candidates. Two or three names for each constituency will be sent to the AICC, he said.

When asked that the BSP could create problem for the Congress to win the elections, he said that the Congress was strong enough to face these parties.

The BSP is raising the issue of dalits but how many dalits have been given tickets, he asked.

The BSP has announced name of candidates six months ago but people are leaving the party as there is no transparency in it, he said.

The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee had initially appointed 36 persons who were working as office bearers at the district level to submit a list of competent candidates from each of the 70 constituencies.

"This list was inherently faulty as many of the observers themselves were running for the MLA's seat," said a senior Congress leader.

Insiders say almost each of the observers was included in the list of candidates. Seeing the list, the Congress high command appointed four central observers, Harkesh Bahadur, Harish Rawat, Chandresh Kumari and Dr Ram Prakash to submit an independent list.

The 70 constituencies were distributed among these four and they were told to submit three names for each seat. Insiders say the names in both the lists drastically differ, which has made the probable candidates jittery about the decision.

Sources in the party office suggest the central observers' list would be given a cold shoulder.

"In the last Rajasthan assembly elections, the central observers' list was completely sidelined and at the last moment all sitting MLAs were given tickets. The result was disastrous, it remains to be seen whether in Delhi too the work of central observers will be given any importance at all," said a senior party leader.

The National Students' Union of India (NSUI) won three out of four seats. While Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad's (ABVP) Nupur Sharma bagged the president's post.

The DUSU results have reflected that inflation, sealing, demolition and other issues raised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have no affect, said DPCC president Jai Parkash Aggarwal.

Local Congress workers including Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress members visited AICC chairperson Sonia Gandhi's residence to congratulate her. They celebrated it as the party's victory.

The results show that the previous team of the NSUI worked for the benefit of Delhi University students.

The list comprises 26 members and has been approved by party president Sonia Gandhi. President of the party's state unit J P Aggarwal made the announcement during a press conference at the office of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC).

All MPs from the Capital have been made members. General Secretary of the All Indian Congress Committee Janardhan Dwivedi, Kapil Sibal, Ajay Maken, Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar, Krishna Tirath, Sandeep Dikshit, Karan Singh and R K Dhawan will lead the team, along with legislators from Delhi.

Sources said all factions within the party, including the "rebellious" Ajay Maken, have been accommodated in the large "contingent" to keep things "calm" within the party. "This is a move to paper over cracks within the party and so that the candidature for the Chief Minister's post can be made clear to workers," a party source said.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, along with senior Delhi leaders A K Walia, Raj Kumar Chauhan, Arwinder Singh Lovely and Haroon Yusuf, will also be part of the committee. Sources said legislator Parvez Hashmi has been appointed as the media advisor of the party. Hashmi, sources said, has been given the post "to keep everyone happy and quiet".

Sources said it was important to initiate such a move to kick-start a strong campaign for elections many party leaders think will be "a tough job this time".

Singh, other members of the committee and State coordinator Virender Singh spent two days in the State capital to finalise the norms for preparing the panels for the 200 constituencies.

It is understood that other than getting feedback from District Congress Committees about the prospective candidates and their winning chances, party has hired the services of one marketing agency to carry out the survey about the prospective candidates.

During his stay in Jaipur, Digvijay Singh received bio-data from over 5000 ticket aspirants, who had thronged the State party headquarters to meet Digvijay Singh and other members of the committee.

Talking to The Pioneer, Digvijay Singh said that the committee would start the screening process from September 2 and would complete its work by September15.

In the very first meeting of the committee on Tuesday, one of its members and former Chief Minister Jagannath Pahadia moved a resolution authorising the party president Sonia Gandhi to take a final decision on the selection of candidates. Girija Vyas, former president of Pradesh Congress Committee and Chairman of the National Commission for Women, questioned the way the screening committee was functioning.

With the Congress party preparing for the assembly elections to be held in November this year and various MLAs seeking tickets, its being felt in the political circle that the party would not give tickets to 24 sitting MLAs due to their bad performance. The party fears that they might lose the elections.

Senior party leaders decided this after election observers talked to the party activists about the image of the candidates, the sources said.

The AICC has appointed four observers to scrutinise the list of ticket seekers.

According to sources, the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) has submitted a list of 210 candidates. Three names have been suggested from one constituency.

The observers talked to the party activists of the constituencies to know about who could be the winner.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is also grappling the MLAs who are likely being refused tickets by the Congress Party.

According to sources, the constituencies of power minister A.K. Walia and education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely may also be changed.

Earlier, Walia contested from Geeta Colony. This constituency has vanished after delimitation. Areas of Geeta Colony have been merged with the Krishna Nagar and the Lakshmi Nagar constituencies. He may contest from Lakshmi Nagar as he has nurtured this area for a long time, the sources said.

Indian Youth Congress members participate in a motorcycle rally from AICC headquarters to Rajghat in New Delhi on Saturday.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit flagged off the rally. Mukul Wasnik, general secretary, AICC; Major Ved Praklash, secretary, AICC; Major Dalbir, Indian Youth Congress (IYC) president; Ashok Tanwar, Pradeep Zaildar, Indian Youth Congress general secretaries and other senior party leaders were present in the rally.

DPYC president Anil Kumar said that such rally would be organised in all districts of the Capital to inform people that there would be no problem of power after nuclear deal. Industries would flourish in the country.

DPYC spokesman Kunal Sharma said that the nuclear deal would play an important role to enable the country to make a significant impact on rest of the world.

CP Joshi, who replaced BD Kalla as the PCC president, was mounting pressure on the party high command to reconstitute the party organisation.

Meanwhile, rivals of Joshi in the party have been demanding change of guard at the State, as they feel that working style of Joshi has annoyed a large number of party leaders and functionaries. It is understood that they were told by Central leaders that a change at this stage would adversely affect party's prospects at the election.

According to party sources, initially, Joshi was allowed change half-a-dozen State-level party functionaries. But Joshi has been trying to impress upon the party high command that he should given a free hand in choosing party functionaries and members of the PCC.

Sources said the party high command has asked Joshi to give due representation to Jats, who had announced their support to the Congress in the coming Assembly election.

Plagued by a vicious factional fight, the Chhattisgarh Congress has banned raising of slogans in favour of any individual party leader of the State and also putting their photographs on the banners and posters meant for the party programme.

However, Congressmen have been advised to raise slogans only in the name of party high command Sonia Gandhi. The move of the State Congress is aimed at preventing clash among the party workers who are divided in factions.

Recently supporters of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi and working PCC president Charandas Mahant came to blows in Korba and even threw chairs at one another over raising slogans in favour if their leaders.

The State leadership has also warned Congress leaders and workers that any irresponsible statement from them would be treated as indiscipline and that stern action would be taken against them. Besides this, the party will decide its programmes not any individual leader.

The PCC has apparently taken these decision in view of the continuing tug of war among the top party leaders and also workers at the grassroot level. All district presidents of the Congress have been asked to strictly follow the guidelines to bring in unity in the party ahead of the next Assembly election due in the State in November this year.

It is to be noted that two working presidents were appointed along with State president to streamline the Congress which is facing the worst kind of dissension. Congressmen have been told to publicise achievements of the Union Government and failure of the State Government.

After Mr K Karunakaran’s show-of-strength in Kochi despite Ahmmed Patel declaring the rally as unauthorised, the authority and prestige of Mr Chandy stand challenged along with that of the High Command. Though the PCC has issued a show-cause notice to the rebel MLAs and sent an SOS to the High Command today, the fact that nearly 50% of the Congress MLAs boycotted the CLP meeting yesterday, has presented the High Command with a war-like-situation.

As senior leaders are monitoring the situation in Kerala, and a report from the PCC is awaited, the High Command is confronted with a difficult choice — either confront the rebels by risking a split, or opt for a compromise with the daring patriarch by reducing CM Oomman Chandy to a sorry figure. Sensing that his own survival is at stake, Mr Chandy sent senior legislator KV Thomas to the AICC president, seeking strong disciplinary action against the rebels. Mr Thomas has reportedly told Ms Sonia Gandhi that after the Kochi rally, the only way that the PCC and the CM could survive the rebel assault was if the High Command took disciplinary action against them.

Adding to his strength was AK Antony — he turned against Mr Chandy’s fight-the-rebels-to-the finish line. While Mr Karunakaran is trying to demolish Mr Chandy’s authority, Mr Antony has chosen to settle scores with him for his ‘betrayal’.

• Senior Congress leaders from the state criticised the style of working of Khurshid who was not present at the meeting.

• Jaiswal and Prasad, however, refrained from criticising Khurshid.

Mr. Khurshid, currently in Lucknow, was not available for comment.

Karunakaran said he would wait till his faction's March 21 rally in Kochi to take a final decision. "We will see if the Congress organisational elections are being held and the suspensions of Congress leaders being revoked," said Karunakaran, whose faction defied a party directive against holding rallies in the state.

• Since the Yadav-led coalition government had been formed on the basis of the list containing names of these 40 MLAs, the court's decision to admit the petition challenging their defection has shaken its very foundation, UPCC Vice President Satyadeo Tripathi told reporters in Lucknow. He said Yadav should resign forthwith on moral grounds without "wasting a minute".
• Tripathi also urged Governor TV Rajeswar to ask the government to desist from taking policy decisions, as its continuance in power was in question. "The Governor should direct the Yadav government to desist from taking policy decisions and also not allow the members of the state development council to visit abroad," he said.

• He also charged Congress with targeting SP leaders and tapping their phones. "They have fallen to the extent of stalling the admission of our children and spying on us." "Nothing could, however, be worse than reported statement of UP Congress President Salman Khursheed wishing the death of our leader Mulayam Singh Yadav," he added.

On assembly polls in Bihar, he said the party would contest the state elections with "full strength." Rubbishing speculation about SP and BJP coming closer, he said the party had been accused of this even earlier and it was both unfounded and politically motivated. "Earlier, we have been accused of hobnobbing with BSP, this time its BJP. People forget it was our party that defeated the communal BJP and we won 40 seats in Lok Sabha polls. Even in the recent by-elections people gave us overwhelming mandate while the Congress could not save its deposit," the SP leader added.

On the Left cold shouldering SP proposal to form Third Front, Singh said "they have not at least ruled it out. It will be formed when the right time comes."