Sheila Dikshit camp takes a beating in DPCC revamp

The Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit has been cut to size in the massive reshuffle orchestrated by the part high command in Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC). Her rival and DPCC president J P Agarwal has been made the chairman of the both manifesto and publicity committees where Dikshit is an ex-officio member.

While nine general secretaries belong to the Agarwal group, six belong to the Dikshit camp. Eight vice-presidents are from the Agarwal lobby, four are from the Dikshit camp. Ajay Maken, who has been appointed as the general secretary, also got few of his people as invitees to the DPCC, indicating increased activity of his group that is also opposed to Dikshit.

Most new office bearers from the Agarwal group are people with experience in the Congress, but those from the Dikshit group are relatively new at the party level. While reconstituting the DPCC after a gap of almost eight years, the party has also ensured that adequate representation is given to all castes, including Jats, Yadavs, Poorvanchalis, Punjabis and the Muslims.

In all the important committees — including the manifesto committee, publicity committee — the vice-presidents and general secretaries and most of the members are known to be closer to Agarwal. Of the 10 members of the manifesto committee only four belong to the Sheila group; only four vice-presidents out of 12, and six general secretaries out of 15, are known to be close to the chief minister.

Party treasurer Sunil Anand, who was once the state secretary of the party, is close to Agarwal. Navin Kumar Bhandari, the lesser-known face in the party who has been appointed as the general secretary for the first time, is known to be closer to Dikshit.

Sources said that since Jitender Kochar, a close aide of Agarwal, has been made the general secretary, Bhandari has been pitched against him. Om Prakash Bidhuri has been made the general secretary of the party for the fourth time. He is also known to be close to the DPCC president. On the contrary, Dikshit has only Sushma Yadav, Navin Bhandari and Mahmood Zia on the list.
The list has also been disappointing for Dikshit herself who was earlier the head of the manifesto committee, but now has been made the deputy.    

Newly-appointed general secretary Ajay Maken has managed to make his presences in the list. Maken is known to be close to the most of the south Delhi office bearers. Eleven people in the list of general secretaries and vice-presidents including Ashok Kumar Jain, Rajender Malik, Aman Arora, Naresh Kumar Neetu, S K Puri are known to be close to Maken.

The Congress has also ensured that it has given adequate representation to all castes. In making Shakeel Ahmed the party in-charge for the state, the Congress has got a Muslim face who can woo both the Bihari and the Poorvanchali voters in Delhi. In Kuljit Singh Nagra, the party has a Sikh face for the state. Out of the 27 member panel of general secretaries and the vice-presidents, six represent the Jat community and three are from the Yadav and the Muslim communities.

Both Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar have been made permanent invitees to the PCC. However, none close to them has made it to the list.