Congmen accuse top leaders of manipulating party polls

NAGPUR, OCT 6: A section of young Congress leaders have levelled sensational allegations that senior party leaders were manipulating the c...

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NAGPUR, OCT 6: A section of young Congress leaders have levelled sensational allegations that senior party leaders were manipulating the city Congress organisational polls.

Significantly, those levelling accusations against senior leaders and a minister of state, include a general secretary of Nagpur City Congress Committee, city Youth Congress Committee president and city Mahila Congress Committee president.

Addressing a joint press conference, they accused party leaders of manipulating the organisational elections’ process right form the stage of enrollment of primary workers and `active’ workers to the stage of electing office-bearers.

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The senior leaders managed to get a list of as many as 6000 `active’ workers approved by the District Returning Officer named by the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee to conduct organisational polls in Nagpur city. The list is full of fake names, the agitated young leaders charged.

According to the party constitution, each `active’ worker has to enroll a minimum of 25 primary members. Referring to this criterion, the young leaders pointed out that list of 6,000 active workers approved by the party’s election officers should also be accompanied by a list of at least 1.50 lakh primary members. But no such list of primary workers is available, In fact, it is difficult to believe that so many primary members were actually enrolled in Nagpur city alone during the membership drive, they added.

Expressing grave doubts about the veracity of the claims of senior leaders about the enrollment figure, the agitated members said they would be meeting District Returning Officer (DRO) Bashir Patel to bring irregularities to his notice.

They also alleged that the election programme was postponed thrice for the convenience of the manipulators. According to a fresh programme, the organisational polls would be held between October 3 and 6. But detailed programme has not been worked out. Even the city Congress Committee is not aware of it, they claimed.

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Such manipulation would only dishearten the workers, who move around in city during the enrollment drive. If the DRO failed to take any corrective measure and ensure that the lists carrying fake names are rejected, the dejected workers will think of dissociating themselves from the party activities, they warned. They, however, refused to identify the senior leaders who allegedly manipulated the lists.