Sonia meets DPCC leaders

NEW DELHI, April 13: All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Sonia Gandhi today met senior Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) lea...

NEW DELHI, April 13: All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Sonia Gandhi today met senior Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) leaders to take stock of the situation in Delhi. The fight for the Delhi Pradesh president also intensified with the present president Choudhary Prem Singh claiming he was not to blame for the party’s debacle in the Capital and his baiters seeking a change in view of the coming assembly elections.

Those who attended the meeting included Prem Singh, former DPCC president Deep Chand Bandhu, Sajjan Kumar, Jag Parvesh Chandra, Deep Chand Sharma, Jagdish Tytler, Jai Prakash Aggarwal and Kiran Choudhary. There was reportedly tremendous opposition to the way Prem Singh had handled the party in the recent elections. On the other hand Prem Singh is said to have blamed infighting within the party and lack of cooperation within the party workers and leaders for the party’s poor performance.

Meanwhile at the DPCC office the Motilal Vora committee formed specially at the behest ofSonia Gandhi also sought to find the reasons for the Congress debacle in Delhi and suggest probable remedial actions.

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Supporters of R K Dhawan, considered to be a sure shot candidate for victory, have blamed the members of legislative assembly (MLAs) from his constituency for his defeat. The infighting within the rank and file has also figured prominently in Dhawan camp’s reasons for his defeat.

Supporters of Shiela Dikshit have also blamed the VIP MLAs who fought hard to ensure the defeat of the official party candidate. “Deep Chand Bandhu, Dr Ashok Walia and Har Kishen Lal Bhagat all on the face of it pledged their support to Shiela Dikshit but actually remained absent during the campaigning,” an east Delhi party leader said.

The allegations against Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar are of a much more serious nature. The party workers feel that the two leaders specially chose relatively weaker candidate to ensure that their hold remains unchallenged not only in their respective constituencies but alsoin the party. The Vora committee has been told that the Delhi Pradesh has been filled with sycophants and “yes-men”.

“It appears that everybody has complained of no actual ground level work in the party. Each level of leadership has been only appeasing the upper level of leaders to remain in existence and the senior leaders are all cutting each other’s support base to extend their own, according to most of the complaints that the Vora committee has received since yesterday,” senior party leader Mukesh Sharma said.