Leader of the House in the Delhi Assembly and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has nominated Model Town MLA Kanwar Karan Singh as the Chief Whip of the Congress Legislature Party. The names of five other office-bearers of the CLP have also been announced.
Mr. Singh has replaced Ramakant Goswami, who had been appointed Vice-Chairman of the Delhi Jal Board. Besides him, Ms. Dikshit has also nominated three MLAs as Parliamentary Secretary to Chief Minister. They are Tri Nagar MLA Anil Bhardwaj, Jangpura MLA Tarvinder Singh Marwah and Bawana MLA Surender Kumar.
With this an attempt appears to have been made to patch up the differences within various sections of the Congress in Delhi as all these three MLAs were never seen to be Sheila loyalists.
The name for the post of the Deputy Chief Whip was also announced during the day and Patel Nagar MLA Rajesh Lilothia has been given the post. Mr. Lilothia has long been closely associated with the Chief Minister.
Sadar Bazaar MLA Rajesh Jain, who in the past has actively contributed in various Congress programmes, has been made the Secretary of CLP. Incidentally, there was earlier talk that he may be made the Chief Whip, but the party found him better suited for the post of Secretary.
With this six-member team in place now, the Congress appears well prepared for the next session of the Delhi Assembly that gets under way this Wednesday. As the Opposition is bracing itself up for a showdown on issues of price rise, corruption and tariff and fare hikes, the Congress Legislature Party now has its team in place to counter them.
