The Hindu : National : Sonia sets up coordination panel for party in Rajasthan

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Sonia sets up coordination panel for party in Rajasthan

Special Correspondent

Pradesh Congress Committee chief C. P. Joshi is chairman

JAIPUR: Congress president Sonia Gandhi has constituted a coordination committee for Rajasthan in this election year with Pradesh Congress Committee president C. P. Joshi as the chairman and all former Chief Ministers of the party as members.

The 22-member body, with seven special invitees, has the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly, Hemaram Choudhary, and the working president of PCC, Parasram Mordia, as members.

The list released in New Delhi by Janardan Dwivedi, general secretary in charge of the organisation, on Thursday, also settles rumours of any likely change in the Rajasthan Congress in the wake of changes effected in West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh.

The all-inclusive body has Parasram Maderna, former Speaker and Jat strongman from Marwar, along with his son-in-law, Harendra Mirdha, AICC secretary, as members.

All the three former Chief Ministers -- Shiv Charan Mathur, Jagannath Pahadia and Ashok Gehlot -- are members of the committee along with former PCC presidents Ramnarain Choudhary, Narain Singh and B. D. Kalla. The two Union Ministers, Sisram Ola and Namonarain Meena, have found a place in the committee while the party’s Lok Sabha members, Karan Singh Yadav and Sachin Pilot, are special invitees.

The committee has the two former Deputy Chief Ministers of the party, Kamla and Banwarlal Bairwa, as members.

The two members who have made surprise entries are Aimamuddin Ahmed Khan alias Duru Mian and Shanti Dhariwal. Mr. Khan is a sitting MLA from Tijara in Alwar district while Mr. Dhariwal, a former Minister, is a vocal Congress leader from the Kota region.

The special invitees, who include all the three AICC secretaries from Rajasthan—Harendra Mirdha, Sanjay Bapna and Jitendra Singh—have Sachin Pilot and Karan Singh Yadav, two party MPs representing Gujjar and Yadav communities respectively. The AICC general secretary and secretary in charge of Rajasthan are members of the special invitees’ group.

The coordination committee has the maximum number – seven out of 22—of Jats, a community which fell out with the Congress after the landslide victory the party had in 1998 in the State, followed by the Scheduled Castes who got three. The weakest representation is perhaps for the Rajput community with a single nominee—Jitendra Singh.

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