A year on, Congress set to get new district heads

A year after the dissolution of its Delhi state unit, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has finally cleared the names of all its 14 district presidents in the national capital. While preparing the list of district presidents, the party has reportedly taken due care to give representation to almost all sections of the society. The new list is expected to be announced after November 14 Children’s Day.

The party is said to have also finalised the names of its 280 block presidents, which are likely to be made public by the end of this month. The post of the block presidents has assumed immense significance in the Congress as majority of those selected are likely to be fielded by the party in the 2017 municipal elections.

The delay in the finalisation of names of district and block heads is primarily being attributed to the party’s crushing defeat in both the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The party had even failed to open its account in both the elections. A senior party leader said that the entire exercise of selecting the new heads had been done after taking into account various parameters which are necessary for any leader to head any wing.

Of the 14 district presidents, the party has retained only four of its former leaders. Among the one’s who have again been cleared for the post of district presidents are Surinder Pal Singh for Karawal Nagar, Laxman Rawat for Patparganj, Madan Korwal for Karol Bagh and Inderjeet Showkeen for Rohini. While Mr Singh belongs to the Sikh community, Mr Rawat is from the Hills, Mr Korwal is the SC and Mr Showkeen is from Jat community.

A party insider said that former block president Mohammad Osman will head Chandni Chowk district. Other new district presidents are Hari Kishan Jindal of Vaish community for Adarsh Nagar, former MLA Bisham Sharma (Brahmin) for Babarpur, Sunil Vohra of Punjabi community for Krishna Nagar, municipal councillor Virender Kasana of Gujjar community for New Delhi, Surinder Kumar (SC) for Kirari, Oradeep Sharma, a Punjabi pundit, for Tilak Nagar, Om Dutt Yadav (OBC) for Najafgarh, Rajesh Chauhan (SC) for Mehrauli and former legislator Ram Singh Netaji of Gujjar community for Badarpur.

Those who have been replaced are Javed Ali for Chandni Chowk, Mukesh Goyal from Adarsh Nagar, Razia Sultana from Babarpur, Chaudhary Ajit Singh from Krishna Nagar, Neeraj Basoya from New Delhi, Sadhu Ram Mittal from Kirari, P.S. Bawa from Tilak Nagar, ex-councillor Jai Kishan Sharma from Najafgarh, Rajbir Singh Yadav from Mehrauli and former MP Sajjan Kumar’s son Jag Parvesh from Badarpur.