New Delhi: Controversial figures and former Congress MPs Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar do not figure on any of the panels set up by the party for polls in Delhi while ex-Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was named as a member of only one of them.
“Congress President Sonia Gandhi has approved the Pradesh Election Committee, Manifesto Committee, Publicity Committee and Disciplinary Committee for the Delhi Pradesh Congress for the ensuing Assembly elections in Delhi,” party general secretary in-charge of Organisation, Janardan Dwivedi, said in a statement here.
Dikshit has been accommodated as a member of the Pradesh Election Committee (PEC) headed by Congress's Delhi unit chief, Arvinder Singh Lovely.
Congress has set up a number of panels ahead of elections in Delhi, where it faces a difficult situation after having been virtually decimated in the 2013 Assembly polls, when it managed to win just eight seats.
AICC general secretary Ajay Maken, too, has been included in the 24-member PEC while the health minister in the erstwhile Dikshit government, AK Walia, has been made chairman of the Manifesto Committee.
CLP leader Haroon Yusuf, who heads the 24-member Publicity Committee, also finds place on two other panels—the Election Committee and Manifesto Committee. The party is yet to set up its campaign committee.
A Disciplinary committee has also been set up headed by Abjit Singh Gulati.
That the 76-year-old Dikshit, who had recently ruled out the possibility of her contesting elections this time, has been included only in the PEC is being seen as the party limiting her role this time.
Dikshit, whose 15 years in office before she lost power make her the longest-serving Chief Minister Delhi has had, was trounced by Aam Aadmi Party's Arvind Kejriwal in the New Delhi constituency in the elections last year.
Following a hue and cry earlier this month over reports that Tytler and Kumar had been included by Congress on a committee for Delhi polls, the party had termed the speculations “absolutely rubbish”.
In Congress's all-important election panel, those finding a place were senior leaders Karan Singh, Dwivedi and Pervez Hashmi (all Rajya Sabha MPs from Delhi), CWC member RK Dhawan, ex-PCC chiefs JP Agrawal, Subhash Chopra and Choudhary Prem Singh and AICC secretaries Manish Chatrarth and Naseeb Singh.
Former MPs Mahabal Mishra and Ramesh Kumar, brother of Sajjan Kumar, are also members of this panel, as are ex-MLAs Jai Kishan, Hasan Ahmed, Devender Yadav, Surendra Kumar and Kunwar Karan Singh.
The 24-member Manifesto Committee included former Union Minister Krishna Tirath, former ministers in Delhi government Kiran Walia, Ramakant Goswami and Narender Nath, MLA Mateen Ahmed and a number of ex-MLAs. Former Union Ministers hailing from Delhi have been made special invitees to it. The Publicity Committee headed by Yusuf has ex-Delhi minister Rajkumar Chauhan and some former MLAs as its members.
