Senior leaders, including sidelined PK Bansal, to head screening panels for polls.
A meeting of the Congress core group here on Friday gave go ahead to legislate half-a-dozen anti-corruption bills pending before the parliament as well as to accelerate the process on Telangana ahead of the general elections.
Sources said the focus of the meeting was to list urgent steps to benefit the Congress in the elections. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who also attended meeting held at the prime minister Manmohan Singh’s residence urged the government to appoint the first Lokpal as soon as possible, to send out a message that party had no tolerance for corruption.
Even before the meeting, Rahul met the prime minister reportedly to discuss ways to blunt the attack of the Bhartiya Janata Party and Aam Aadmi Party against the UPA government.
The meeting presided over by Congress president Sonia Gandhi endorsed Rahul’s view and directed the government to push as many anti-corruption bills as possible in the parliament session and any left out be brought into force through ordinance.
These bills include the Whistleblowers Protection Bill, the Right of Citizens for Time-bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, Prevention of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials Bill, Public Procurement Bill and the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill.
Law minister Kapil Sibal and minister of state for personnel V Narayanasamy were specially invited to the meeting of the core group. Since the UPA came to power in 2004, the core group has emerged as the highest decision making government-party interface. All the crucial issues before going to the Cabinet are discussed at the group.
The meeting also asked the government to accelerate the process of formation of Telangana and ensure its passage in parliament in February. The meeting also approved Rahul’s plan for a reshuffle in the party after its one-day AICC session next Friday that will involve induction of some ministers for the organisational works.
Meanwhile, the old guard in the Congress has returned taking control of ten screening committees for selection of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. Significantly, they do not include three general secretaries — C P Joshi, Mohan Prakash and Ajay Maken — who headed the screening bodies for the four state assembly elections.
The old guards in their 60s and 70s have been given the responsibility to decide the candidates, with the exception of minister of state for defence Jitendra Singh, the 42-year old Alwar MP from Rajasthan. Singh has been assigned the task of shortlisting the candidates for the most crucial state — Uttar Pradesh. Attached to him is another Rahul confidante AICC secretary Avinash Pande, Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra.
The screening panels consists of their chairmen and one nominated member, in addition to the PCC presidents, CLP leaders and the in-charge AICC general secretaries. These panels will scrutinise the shortlisted aspirants and give the recommendations for the final selection by the central election committee headed by Sonia Gandhi.
Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge (71) heads the panel for Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Mumbai, with Rahul confidante Paresh Chanani as a member, while former railway minister Pawan Bansal, sidelined after his nephew taking bribe for appointment of a railway board member, is back in the reckoning as the head of the panel for Rajasthan, Gujarat, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, with AICC secretary Kuljeet Nagra from Punjab as a member.
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