Selection for Cong posts delayed, lobbying starts

The selection of members for Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee posts, which were dissolved following the debacle in the last Assembly and parliamentary elections, will be delayed by at least a month.

The party had appointed two observers in every city district for the selection process. The observers were asked to submit a report by July 31. However, it has not been submitted yet.
Party leaders justified the delay citing large number of applications.

But the internal lobbying is also delaying the process as some leaders are trying to push their candidates for certain posts. The indifference of the party high command, which has hardly looked at the city unit after the defeat in last parliamentary elections, has encouraged such leaders.

“Many leaders have put posters and many are circulating false information in certain media lobbies to get a post in the party organisation. The party high command shall make it clear that this time the selection of candidates must be done without any lobbying or infighting,” said a senior Congress leader.

“This is the time when the party needs people who are eligible for the posts and not those who are licking the shoes of senior party leaders of Delhi,” he added.

Counting on drivers

So far, the party has only constituted a new transport cell with former party MP from west Delhi Mahabal Mishra as its chief to garner vote from the 2.5 lakh e-rickshaw drivers and their family members in possible Assembly elections.

The party has hardly come out of the cold war between the lobbies of former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and former city unit chief J P Agarwal. The “Sheila lobby” still has influence and its members are accused of working independently during the Assembly and the parliamentary elections.

The city Congress has 14 district and 140 block level committees which were dissolved in May.
The party high command has proposed doubling the posts for district and block-level members. Other posts of chiefs of different cells, like the crucial minority cell and others are still lying vacant.