Congress circles are abuzz over a reported meeting of senior Congress leader PC Chacko, who is all set to take over as the party’s in-charge of Delhi Congress affairs, with former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit at her Nizamuddin East residence on Friday.
Indications are that old warhorse Dikshit may be handed over the reins of Congress campaign in the Assembly polls. Former MP and Dikshit’s son Sandeep Dikshit, who has also moved into his mother’s house, was also present in the meeting. If and how to involve three-term Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit remains an issue with Congress leadership and Chacko as her detractors are insisted that her role to be curtailed in the upcoming Assembly polls.
Top sources told The Pioneer that Chacko met Dikshit at her residence on Friday and reported to have discussed the political scenario of the national Capital. Sources said that Chacko’s meeting with Dikshit was a clear indication that she may be given a larger role in the upcoming polls. There has been a growing demand in the Congress to bring in Dikshit as the party’s star campaigner for the upcoming Assembly elections in the national Capital.
Dikshit has made it clear that she is not going to contest the Assembly poll despite a large number of supporters pressurising her to take charge of the party’s campaign. Congress MlA from Okhla Asif Mohd Khan said there was no leader in Delhi of her stature. “We have told the party leadership that we should contest the poll under her leadership,” he said.
Khan, who along with some Congress MlAs had recently met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, had demanded that the party should go to polls under Dikshit’s leadership. “She is the most credible face of our party in Delhi. Her administrative skills helped in the overall development of the city,” he added.
The Congress leader said that the party needs to project the development works that were carried out in the city under Dikshit’s 15-year rule. “She has changed the face of the city. We need to aggressively convey this to the electorate.” like Khan, former Delhi Congress president and former Delhi Assembly speaker Subhash Chopra said that Dikshit was one of the most popular leaders of the party. “It was under her leadership that so many development projects were completed in the city. We need to highlight the party’s achievements under her 15-year rule to the Delhiites.”
Even Matia Mahal MlA Shoaib Iqbal, who joined the Congress on Thursday, said that the party needs to highlight its development works in the coming Assembly elections. He even went to the extent of saying that the works which Sheila did in 15 years could not have been
completed even in 60 years.
Many Congress leaders have personally approached Dikshit to campaign for them in their respective seats. Though the former Chief Minister has not given any formal assurance to any partymen, she has gone on record, saying that she would work for the welfare of her party till her last breath.
According to sources, Chacko reportedly discuss his plan to replicate the Kerala experiment of setting up booth committees in a one-hour State-wide exercise to energise a demoralised party unit. This experiment in Delhi ahead of the elections is being seen in view of the oft-heard complaint that the Congress had not even distributed voters’ slips in the December 2013 Assembly
elections and the lok Sabha polls. As of date, Kerala has 21,548 booth committees.
The formal order appointing Chacko as the All India Congress Committee in-charge of Delhi in place of general secretary Shakeel Ahmad — who has sought to be relieved to attend to
personal matter — is likely to be issued on Friday after the party leadership firms up its mind on assigning the other States under the watch of the outgoing office bearer.