Aimed at disciplining ex-MlAs, who were not active during the parliamentary elections, the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) is mulling not to accommodate them in the organisational setup.
The party is planning to involve those party workers in the organisation, who were active during the elections. In a related development, having taken note of high women voters’ turnout in the parliamentary elections, the DPCC has decided to reorganise the women cell. The Congress has now planned to expand women activities across the city to enlist the support of more women.
Sources in the Congress said that several senior party leaders, who had lost the Assembly polls, are yet to reconcile to the fact. “They are active neither in their areas nor in the day-to-day functioning of the organisation. During the parliamentary polls, they remained idle at home. They did not even come out for the party candidates’ campaigns. That is why the party is mulling to involve active party workers in the organisational setup, who were active during the elections,” said a senior Congress leader on condition of anonymity.
Only the Congress leaders — Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh lovely, Congress legislative Party leader Haroon Yusuf and party spokesperson Mukesh Sharma — were active during the election. “It was incumbent upon the lok Sabha candidates to have enlisted support of former MlAs and party workers. All the candidates were seasoned politicians and it was their responsibility to involve them in the elections,” said Delhi Congress spokesperson, Mukesh Sharma. He refused to comment on whether the party will involve them in the organisational setup or not.
On the other hand, the party has also decided to intensify women activities after the elections. On Saturday, Delhi Congress Mahila Congress chief, Onika Mehrotra, called a meeting of all block-level and district-level women workers for a thanksgiving and to discuss the future plans.
“All the booth observers and grass roots level workers of Delhi women Congress were called in to the meeting. We have discussed the future plans for the party’s campaign in possible Assembly elections and the workers also expressed their desire to work for parliamentary polls in other States,” a women worker, who attended the meeting, said. The party has not decided to send its women workers to the other States but has received many applications. Some party workers, who are from western UP, said they wanted to work in their homeland during the election but the party has not sent them for campaigning. Similarly, some others from Punjab and Haryana also want to work for the parliamentary elections in their States.
For the possible Assembly elections in Delhi, the party is preparing its women workers to launch a door-to-door campaign to tell female voters about the achievements of the Congress party in its 15-year tenure in Delhi.
“This is the only party which had a woman Chief Minister in Delhi. Our party has launched various schemes related to women empowerment like ladli Yojana. In the Annashree Yojana, the party had decided to provide all the food subsidies to the most senior women of the applicant’s family virtually making her the head of the family. We had launched the women in distress helpline and in the Delhi’s Assembly election manifesto.