Chacko overturns Dikshit's move to dissolve 280 panels
The block committees were elected last year when Ajay Maken headed the Delhi Congress.
New Delhi: A day after Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit dissolved all 280 block-level committees of the party, P.C. Chacko overturned the decision — a move that hinted at differences between the two leaders.
Mr Chacko, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Delhi unit, “stayed” the dissolution of block committees and forwarded copies of his order to Congress president Rahul Gandhi as well as to Ms Dikshit, party sources said.
Delhi Congress leaders, including Ms Dikshit and Mr Chacko, met Mr Gandhi on Friday, who advised them to work unitedly in wake of the Assembly polls in Delhi scheduled to be held early next year. However, Ms Dikshit, taking cognisance of a report by a committee formed by her to probe the party’s debacle in the recent Lok Sabha polls, dissolved all block committees hours after meeting Mr Gandhi.
A group of Congress leaders, on Saturday, met Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal and Mr Chacko and protested the move of dissolving the block committees.
“We told the two leaders that the block committees and their presidents were elected and they cannot be dissolved all of a sudden before the Assembly elections since it takes a lot of time to form them,” said Chatar Singh, who was in the meeting.
The Delhi unit of Congress has apparently failed to recover from the differences among its leaders, with the “anti-Dikshit group” claiming that the block committees were dissolved “unilaterally” by her without consulting Mr Chacko.
The block committees were elected last year when Ajay Maken headed the Delhi Congress. “The decision to disband the block committees formed under the presidentship of Maken is an attempt by Dikshit to stamp her authority by reconstituting them under her leadership,” said a senior Delhi Congress leader.
The differences in the party had surfaced during the Lok Sabha polls, when Mr Chacko and Mr Maken batted for an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to defeat BJP.
Ms Dikshit and her followers in the party had strongly resisted the alliance, which finally failed to materialise. Incidentally, Congress lost all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi at the hands of BJP with huge margins.