Navendu Sharma, TNN Jan 10, 2011, 05.58am IST
PATNA: With 2014 Lok Sabha elections in mind, the results of which may see Gandhi family scion Rahul Gandhi being catapulted to a new role, the state Congress has set out to strengthen its party organization.
As part of the exercise, party conveners will be appointed in each of the 40 Lok Sabha (LS) seats and 243 assembly seats, who will be entrusted with the task of holding party programmes in their areas. Public meetings will be held in the constituencies. Within three months, panchayat-level Congress committees will be formed across the state with adequate representation to all sections of people.
Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) president Chaudhary Mehboob Ali Qaiser said here on Sunday that a 15-member "flagship monitoring" committee has been set up to review the implementation of Centrally-sponsored schemes and programmes in Bihar and report to the party leadership about any lacunae. Headed by former legislator Vijay Shankar Mishra, the panel's strength would be later raised to 30-35.
The other members of the committee are Sanjeev Prasad Tony, Awadhesh Kumar Singh, Nagmani, Sunila Devi, Satish Kumar, Dasai Choudhary, ex-MP Anil Yadav, Irshad Hussain Ansari, Raj Kumar Rajan, Mohd Khan Ali, Madhurendra Singh, Vinod Kumar Malakar, Shakaldeo Sahni and S K Jabin.
A seven-member disciplinary committee has also been constituted under the chairmanship of former BPCC chief and legislator Chandan Bagchi at the state level, which will look into the complaints of indiscipline and anti-party activities during the recent assembly elections, said Qaiser. Jagannath Rai, Binod Kumar, G S Ramchandra Das, Khalil Ansari, H P Singh Kushwaha and Ram Updesh Singh will be the other members of the committee.
The BPCC chief said that district-wise meetings of all block Congress committee presidents would be held at the district Congress headquarters between January 16 and January 21. Instructions would be given at these meetings to monitor the progress of centrally-sponsored schemes and programmes. Workshop-cum-training camps of panchayat presidents would be organized at the block levels within three months of the formation of panchayat committees.
These steps, he said, were in the light of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's instructions during the party's plenary meeting held in New Delhi last month and the state unit's own thinking.
Qaiser said that his party would extend issue-based, constructive cooperation to the state's NDA government. He demanded that panchayat polls be held on party line, and added that the Congress was the first party to demand a CBI probe into the Purnia MLA's murder and related issues.
He also hailed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia for a Central grant of Rs 2,000 crore to Bihar, nod for opening model schools in 407 blocks, raising the daily wages under MNREGA by 17-30 percent and reserving 25 percent seats for poor children in private schools.
Defending the show cause served on media department president Premchand Mishra for anti-party activities, he said that all election-related party committees like campaign committee, manifesto committee, election control committee, transport and housing committee, and coordination committee had been dissolved with immediate effect.
On the issue of electoral debacle, he once again owned the moral responsibility even while saying that one person could not be held responsible for it.
He termed it a "matter of concern" that the number of votes polled by the party in several assembly seats was lower than the number of Youth Congress members enrolled some time back. "The party will be careful to enrol only genuine members in future," he said.
