Marking the beginning of a new era in the history of Delhi Congress, newly-appointed president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee Arvinder Singh said on Sunday that “a new leadership has emerged within the State unit which would promote hard-working workers across board”.
Addressing the party workers at the DPCC office in the presence of a galaxy of central and State leaders, Mr. Singh: “It is easy for the leaders when the party is in power. But the leadership is tested in real terms when it is out of power. A new leadership has emerged in the party. It is time that young leaders with blessings of the seniors would take forward the message of the party, its policies and achievements to the people which unfortunately we could not during the elections.”
Mr. Lovely was speaking at the function to officially take charge of the DPCC, which was attended by a galaxy of Central and State leaders including AICC general-secretary Janardan Dwivedi, Union Ministers Kapil Sibal and Krishna Tirath, former Chief Minister Sheila Diskhit, Members of Parliament Ajay Maken, Mahabal Mishra, Ramesh Kumar, ex-MPs Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler and former and current MLAs among others.
While the DPCC office premise wore festive atmosphere with party workers bursting fire crackers and jostling for space both on and off stage, the occasion also marked an end of the so-called “Sheila Diskhit” era in Delhi Congress. The change of guard was palpable by the ambience and the mood of workers at party office, as well as the speech of almost all the speakers who spoke at the function.
Though the ousted Chief Minister shared stage with the senior leaders of the party, her face – that had become synonymous with that of the Delhi Congress due the successive electoral success of the party under her leadership over the past one-and-a-half decade – was missing from almost all of the posters and hoardings erected at the party office.
While the Congress leaders made references to the performance of both the Central and the Sheila Dikshit-led Delhi Government in their short speeches, they were almost unanimous in passing on the message to the party workers that the future lies in the “young leadership endowed by the party high command”.
“Our leaders Ms. Sonia Gandhi and Mr. Rahul Gandhi have given us a young leader in Arvinder Singh. We would stand behind him with solidarity in taking the message of our party’s policies and achievements to the people of Delhi,” said Union Minister and Chandni Chowk MP Kapil Sibal.
In her minute-long speech, Ms. Sheila Dikshit said: “I am confident that the young leadership chosen by the high command, would bring party back to power and regain the position of the party which it had enjoyed over the past 15 years”.
AICC general-secretary Janardhan Dwivedi termed victory of the AAP as a victory of “anarchy” and “smear campaign”.
“The Congress government changed the face of Delhi. You (party workers) must not get bogged down by the loss because it was the victory of anarchy and smear campaign. It is not the victory of policies and programmes,” said Mr. Dwivedi.
