NEW DELHI: After a gap of 13 years, senior Delhi Congress leader Subhash Chopra was handed charge of the party in the national capital on Wednesday.
The post of Delhi Congress president fell vacant after former chief minister Sheila Dikshit passed away on July 20. Besides resurrecting the party’s fortune in Delhi, the three-time MLA, who was also the speaker of the Delhi Assembly, has the Herculean task at hand of bringing warring factions together.
Chopra, a Punjabi leader, started his political career as a student leader in 1968, continued rising through the ranks in the party, and become president of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee in 2002, a post which he held for about 4.5 years.
He was elected to Delhi Assembly from Kalkaji seat thrice in 1998, 2003, and 2008. “The party is united and I am sure if we work together we can defeat anyone. There is no factionalism in the Congress. It is the duty of the president to keep the flock together,” said Chopra.
In another appointment, former international cricketer Kirti Azad was made chairman of the campaign committee of the party’s Delhi unit. Azad’s appointment is being seen as an attempt to woo back Poorvanchali voters to Congress fold ahead of the polls.
The people from eastern Uttar Pradesh and part of Bihar living in Delhi are jointly addressed as Poorvanchalis.
A senior Delhi Congress functionary, lauding the decision of their appointments, said that Chopra is capable of bringing all groups on the same platform and Azad would help us to get back the support of Poorvanchalis.