Poorvanchalis, Pahadis will have more say in Congress’ Delhi cells
The Congress is mulling to provide more say to Poorvanchalis, Pahadis (people from Uttarakhand) and south Indians in the party’s various cells in Delhi functioning under the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), sources have said. According to poll observers, unprecedented migration from states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar has formed a core vote bank of Poorvanchalis in the capital and, therefore, political parties are not letting any stones unturned to woo this group of voters.
It is being said that in the 2019 general elections that is round the corner, the aforementioned groups are going to play a major role in deciding the fate of candidates in Delhi. Seeing the rising importance of Poorvanchali voters, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had already appointed a Poorvanchali Bhojpuri actor-turn-leader, Manoj Tiwari, as its Delhi party unit head. Tiwari is also a member of parliament from North East Delhi’s Lok Sabha constituency. The Congress has already launched a rejig exercise to strengthen its Delhi unit, and this is part of the party’s programme ahead of the 2019 general elections.
A source close the DPCC told The Sunday Guardian: “The party has initiated a major overhauling process to induct people from Poorvanchal, South India and Uttarakhand to lure voters from these segments in the capital.” Recently, the DPCC had announced the appointment of 14 presidents of district-level committees and three additional cells under the DPCC were also created. The three cells are called Delhi Pradesh Poorvanchal, Parvatiya and South Indian Congress. P.C. Chacko, AICC in-charge of Delhi unit, said: “Restructuring of the DPCC has begun and we will complete the process soon. The process of rejig is a bid to focus on people of Eastern UP, Uttarakhand and South Indian states living in Delhi.” The restructuring process begun with the re-entry of Shila Dikshit, former Delhi Chief Minister and the old guard of the party, as DPCC head. Dikshit’s appointment came a few days after Ajay Maken announced his resignation from the president’s post. After a gap of five years, Dikshit has come to the centre-stage of Delhi politics. She will be assisted by three working presidents, two-time MLAS Devendra Yadav and Rajesh Lilothia, and former leader of the Congress legislative unit Haroon Yusuf.
There have been reports that Maken was unhappy with the party, but insiders have said that the exercise is part of a greater rejig that is underway to strengthen the party unit ahead of 2019 general elections.