MLA contradicts Rahul: Can’t win without naming CM face

A senior Rajasthan Congress leader on Tuesday said that the party must name a chief ministerial candidate if it wanted to win the assembly elections due next year.

“People of the state need to know who their CM will be if they vote for the party. Without that, it is not possible to go to people to seek votes,” senior PCC vice-president Vishvendra Singh said.

Singh, a member of the erstwhile royal family, said the party needs to project a face in the state, just like it did in Punjab where it declared Amarinder Singh as its CM candidate ahead of the election.

An MLA from Deeg-Kumher constituency in Bharatpur, Singh also said that the party will not win the polls if it failed to change its style of functioning. “The party should give up the dream of returning to power if it does not change its functioning,” he said.

His remarks come barely a week after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi told party MLAs from Rajasthan that he favoured “collective leadership” to fight the 2018 assembly elections, putting to rest rumours about change in leadership in the state unit.

Singh did not attend the meeting called to discuss strategies for the 2018 assembly poll and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He said he had a medical emergency.

“The leaders in the state are only holding meetings. Meetings don’t work. Let people go out and work in their areas,” the senior leader said, slamming the PCC meetings in Jaipur.

He said the Congress was in a position to gain power in state as people were fed up with the BJP government.

He , however, said for that the party high command will have to change its work style.

The legislator said that Congress workers were disappointed with the party’s style of functioning.