NEW DELHI: To build consensus over the new Delhi Congress chief’s post lying vacant since the death of former CM Sheila Dikshit, the party’s interim chief Sonia Gandhi on Saturday met a delegation of the state party leaders.
According to a party leader, senior Delhi Congress leaders Narendra Nath, Ramakant Goswami, Mangat Ram Singhal and Kiran Walis had an over one-hour meeting with Sonia Gandhi at her residence. They took up the issue of new state party chief and new state in-charge of the Congress.
According to a Congress leader, Sonia Gandhi heard the party leaders’ views, but will take a decision after discussions with several other senior party leaders. On Thursday, Sonia met Delhi Congress in-charge PC Chacko, former city unit chief Ajay Maken, Aravinder Singh Lovely and Subhash Chopra to discuss the issue.
The post of state Congress unit chief has been lying vacant since the death of Dikshit on July 20. Chacko had last week asked the party to relieve him of his duties.
On Friday, Delhi AAP legislator Alka Lamba rejoined the Congress after six years. The Congress, eyeing a comeback in the national capital which it ruled for three consecutive terms — from 1998 to 2013 — under Dikshit, is still unable to put its house in order.
On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched the campaign for Delhi Assembly, which will go to polls early next year. Delhi’s BJP unit chief Manoj Tiwari, who represents the northeast Delhi parliamentary constituency, and senior BJP leader Vijay Goel have been holding a series of programmes in the run-up to the Assembly elections.
The Congress had lost the 2013 elections to the Aam Aadmi Party and was wiped out in the 2015 Assembly elections when the AAP won 67 out of the 70 seats. The BJP had bagged a paltry three Assembly seats.
With agency inputs