New Delhi: The Congress’s ambitious plan to revamp its district units, with a pilot in Gujarat, has run into internal turbulence. The party’s state working president and MLA, Jignesh Mevani, has raised a banner of revolt against state Congress chief Shaktisinh Gohil, a Rajya Sabha MP.
The state unit was plunged into a crisis barely two months after Ahmedabad hosted the 86th session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). The infighting has erupted while the state is heading towards by-elections in the Kadi and Visavadar assembly seats. Polling is scheduled for 19 June.
On 16 April at Modasa in Gujarat’s Aravalli district, Rahul Gandhi launched the exercise to overhaul the District Congress Committee (DCC) units across states. The move came days after he had publicly announced that the party’s Gujarat unit would have to remove leaders who are conniving with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Subsequently, the Congress leadership began the process of appointing new district unit presidents in the state. Led by Mukul Wasnik, an internal committee, including Kanhaiya Kumar, Sachin Rao, Meenakshi Natarajan, and Krishna Allavaru, framed the modalities of the exercise.
Following the committee’s suggestions, the AICC appointed an observer for each district, with three to four state-level leaders assigned to assist each AICC observer. The Wasnik-led panel had submitted its recommendations to the AICC, which, by 31 May this year, was supposed to announce the new district presidents. It has not, so far.
Among the state-level observers, Mevani has for a while been alleging that compromises in the selection process in some districts as the leadership of the Pradesh Congress Committee did not heed Rahul Gandhi’s suggestion to weed out “BJP agents”.
“Even the leaders of the other parties are now saying that you are (Congress) filled with dud cartridges. So get rid of them—what are you waiting for? B-team members, spent cartridges, those making backdoor deals with the opposing camp, wedding-horse types—does it really hurt to remove all of them? If not for me, at least listen to Rahul Ji!!” Mevani posted on X.
When contacted, Mevani told ThePrint that the party had already addressed some of his concerns. He added that his X post was about the state of affairs of the Congress in Gujarat, not the appointment process of the district Congress committees.
“Gujarat Congress, in tune with AICC, has been identifying the new DCC chiefs. It (The exercise) will give us new and deserving faces at the district level. It will inspire our cadre. It shows the party’s seriousness to reform it,” Mevani told ThePrint.
Party sources, however, said that Mevani expressed his displeasure with Gohil’s approach and made it clear in party forums.
A deepening crisis
The crisis deepened last week after Amit Nayak, a Gujarat Congress spokesperson, announced his resignation, citing factionalism in his letter to Rahul Gandhi. In his letter, Nayak accused Ahmedabad City Congress chief Himmatsingh Patel of working for the BJP.
“For quite some time now, you have been persistently trying to find racehorses, wedding horses, and lately even limping horses. As a small worker in the party, it is my duty to contribute accurate information to your noble goal …,” Nayak wrote on Facebook.
“How long can a small worker, putting his life, business, and social standing at risk, continue to fight with dedication for the party’s ideology? And how long will corporate-style leaders—who have mastered the art of political gains over the years—continue to deceive the party leadership?” he questioned.
Speaking to ThePrint, Gohil, however, refused to comment on the allegations made by Mevavi, saying that the Congress party was currently focusing on the upcoming bypolls. The AICC, which has also rolled out the revamp exercise in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, would soon take the final call on the appointment of the district unit presidents, he added.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manickam Tagore, one of the AICC observers for the DCC reform process in Gujarat, said the exercise was quite comprehensive.
“For instance, I was assigned the Ahmedabad rural district, under which there are five assembly constituencies. In the nine-odd days that I spent there, I interviewed close to 780 people. The cohort that I spoke to ranged from taluka-level office-bearers to block presidents. Observers appointed by the Pradesh Congress committee assisted me. We have submitted our report to the AICC, which will take the final call,” the Congress leader told ThePrint.
Tagore, MP from Tamil Nadu’s Virudhnagar, is now serving his third term in the Lok Sabha and remains among the central observers appointed by the AICC to restructure the party’s district-level units in Haryana.
Mevani said that the Wasnik-led panel recommended three to five leaders for every district, and any one of them could become president.
“Some of the district presidents, who are doing well for the party, will continue. They are not to be replaced,” Mevani added.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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