The All India Congress Committee on Wednesday appointed Subhash Chopra as the Delhi Congress chief ahead of the Assembly elections. This will be his second stint as the DPCC president; he had held the position from 1998 to 2003.
The post has been lying vacant since the demise of former three-term Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit on July 20. Three working presidents of the Delhi Congress had been running the affairs of the Delhi unit for the past three months.
The AICC also appointed Kirti Azad as chairman of its campaign committee. Earlier this week, Mr. Azad’s name had been doing the rounds for the top post.
AICC general secretary in-charge of Delhi P.C. Chacko said that the three working presidents, who were appointed by Ms. Dikshit, would be relieved of their positions. Mr. Chacko had earlier expressed his desire not to continue as the State in-charge once the Delhi Congress chief had been appointed. On being asked about whether he would continue, Mr. Chacko said that Congress president Sonia Gandhi would take a call.
Mr. Chacko said that the Central Disciplinary Action Committee of the AICC, headed by Motilal Vora, has decided to issue show cause notices to five Congress leaders from Delhi for speaking against senior party leaders at a recent press conference.
Sources said the move was to ensure discipline in the ranks of the Delhi Congress ahead of the upcoming elections.
“The show cause notices were issued to former Delhi Ministers Kiran Walia, Mangatram Singhal and Ramakant Goswami; and councillors Rohit Manchanda and Jitendra Kumar Kochar. They have been asked to explain their action within 15 days, failing which action will be initiated,” a statement from the committee read.
After the demise of Ms. Dikshit, the Delhi Congress had broken into various factions. Mr. Chopra has been assigned the task of reunifying the unit before the polls.
In the last Assembly elections, the Congress had drawn a blank. It improved its voteshare in the 2019 general election but had failed to win any seats.
A three-time MLA from Kalkaji, Mr. Chopra was first elected as a member of the Delhi Assembly in 1998 and retained his seat in 2003 and 2008. He was the Assembly Speaker from June-December 2003.
Mr. Azad will be returing to the Delhi Cogress after a gap of nearly two decades.
All friends here: Chopra
On his plans to prepare the party for the upcoming polls, Mr. Chopra said that there are always ups and downs in politics and that the Congress improved its position in the general election. “What has AAP done for Delhi apart from spend huge sums on advertising and publicity,” he asked.
On dealing with the factions inside the party, Mr. Chopra said that there was nobody in the Delhi Congress that was not his friend.
