Chopra, Walia likely to get key posts in city Congress

Former Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra is tipped to head the Assembly election campaign committee of the party’s state unit while former health minister A K Walia may be named as the chief of the manifesto committee, party sources said.

The names of the two leaders have emerged from discussions which city unit chief Arvinder Singh held before finalising the contours of new organisational committees, whose constitution has been pending since June.

Sources said the new party panels, including the 140 block and 272 ward committees, are likely to have very few leaders perceived close to former chief minister Sheila Dikshit.
A formal announcement on the constitution of the new committees is expected any time this week. “The leaders complaining about the delay in constitution of the committees will be silenced now,” said a party legislator.

Some disgruntled Congress MLAs, including Mateen Ahmed, had aired their displeasure before All India Congress Committee leaders over not being given any substantial role in the functioning of the Delhi unit.

“Is the party going to fight Assembly elections only with the help of Arvinder Singh, Haroon Yusuf and Mukesh Sharma – the three current office bearers of Delhi Congress?” asked a Muslim Congress MLA, who has been on the forefront of a campaign to give Dikshit a bigger role in the Delhi unit.

A leader close to Arvinder Singh said former MPs Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler may not be named in any committee. “The two MPs and Dikshit will continue to guide the election campaign,” he said.

Apart from an election committee, members of a manifesto committee, a campaign committee and a publicity committee have also been decided by Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief.

“Only those former legislators who are likely to be renominated in the coming Assembly polls were consulted by the party chief while identifying the new block and ward committee heads,” said a leader.

For finalising the committees, Arvinder Singh did not consult all the seven former MLAs of the last Assembly as some of them may not get a re-nomination, said a leader.
He spoke to former MPs and overruled the suggestions of some former MLAs who had failed to strengthen the party organisation after a big defeat in the last Assembly polls, he said.

Former Seelampur legislator Mateen Ahmed and former Okhla legislator Mohammad Asif had recently met party vice president Rahul Gandhi to seek constitution of the committees which were dissolved in June.

Asif said, “The committees were last formed during the tenure of Ram Babu Sharma as the city Congress chief. His successor J P Agarwal also did not change the panels and retained their members during his two terms.”