Sheila dissolves all 280 block Congress panels

New Delhi: After meeting Congress president Rahul Gandhi, party’s state unit head and three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Friday went out for a major revamp of the party by dissolving all its 280 block committees in the national capital.

It is learnt that the party supremo told Ms Dikshit that all within the state unit should put up a united front to take on AAP in the 2020 Assembly elections. In the last Assembly polls, Congress was not able to open its account in the 70-member Assembly. However, AAP had swept the polls by winning 67 of the 70 seats.

Reliable sources said that Ms Dikshit’s decision to dissolve all the block committees was also based on the fact finding report of the five-member committee, which was set up to look into the issues that led to the party’s defeat in all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the city.

Though Congress was able to increase its vote share in comparison to the last Assembly polls, yet it was able to secure second slot in five seats and was reduced to third position in the remaining two Lok Sabha seats.

After the parliamentary polls, Ms Dikshit had set up a five-member committee to look into the issues which had led to the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections.

The committee, in its report, is said to have suggested that the party needs to be revamped to take on AAP and BJP in the upcoming Assembly polls.

A senior local leader said, “This is perhaps the only reason why Ms Dikshit has dissolved all block committees. We want to restructure the party from the block level.”

Earlier, in order to bring transparency in the selection of the party candidates for the state elections, all the 14 district presidents and 280 block chiefs had been asked to submit at least three names from their respective areas.

Another local leader said, “With the restructuring of the party, we want to give a fair chance to those party workers who have been sincerely involved in the day-to-day affairs of Congress. Once all the district and block chiefs submit their list of candidates, a screening committee would be set up to shortlist 70 candidates for the state polls.”