The Hindu : New Delhi News : Congress coordination meet witnesses muted fireworks

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New Delhi

Congress coordination meet witnesses muted fireworks

Staff Reporter

Party leaders accuse Ministers of ignoring them

Photo: S. Subramanium

MUTED FIREWORKS: Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and DPCC president Jai Prakash Agarwal during the Congress coordination meeting in the Capital on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: The first coordination meeting of members of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee led by J. P. Agarwal and the Delhi Government led by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit witnessed muted fireworks with the party leaders using the long-awaited opportunity to accuse the Delhi Ministers and officials of ignoring them and not heeding to them.

The meeting at the DPCC headquarters in Rajiv Bhawan lasted nearly two hours, providing both the ruling Congress party and the government an opportunity to exchange notes on ways to further the party’s prospects in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections for a possible return to power for a record third term.

Sources said that at the very outset Mr. Agarwal urged the members to raise issues close to their heart but within the prescribed decorum. Ms. Dikshit, on the other hand, said that in the last nine years her government had done a lot for the people and it was now time to carry this message to the masses.

She said as against the self-destructive talk of Congress not being in a position to return to power, the party should confidently go out among the people with the belief that it could win over 50 of the 70 Delhi assembly seats in the next elections.

According to sources, Ms. Dikshit said it was essential that an aggressive approach was adopted to counter the BJP. It was also stated that the weaknesses of the BJP in ruling the Municipal Corporation of Delhi should be exploited in an organised manner ahead of the elections.

The Chief Minister also reiterated that inflation and price rise were not as important as they were being made out by the BJP since in Delhi the real inflation had been much less at around 6 per cent.

During the meeting, party office-bearers raised several contentious issues. General secretary Mahmood Zia, sources said, charged that the officials and the Ministers, including the Chief Minister, were not accessible to the party functionaries. At this, Ms Dikshit said when some of the office-bearers visit her regularly, how was it that others were unable to do so.

Another general secretary, Naresh Kumar, raised the issue of selecting the candidates for the Assembly elections wisely and conducting a survey to know what chance each sitting MLA stands to win his or her seat again.

He also demanded that OBC reservation be extended to the Jats in Delhi’s higher educational institutions.

Some members like Jai Kishen, MLA, charged that the Government had not done enough work in the villages and jhuggi-jhopri clusters and cautioned that this might boomerang on the party. Likewise, DPCC members raised concern at the issue of poor power supply and faulty metering by the discoms and the recent announcement to provide provisional regularisation to unauthorised colonies, saying these would go against the interests of the Congress in Delhi.

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