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Karan Singh to head campaign committee

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI NOV. 19. With barely 10 days left for campaigning to end in Delhi, the Congress high command today announced the constitution of a high-power Campaign Committee headed by the Rajya Sabha member, Karan Singh. The Congress party member and social activist, Nafisa Ali, has been made convenor of the Committee with Bansi Lal Mehta as the co-chairman. The Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, and the DPCC president, Chaudhary Prem Singh, are among the 89-member Committee approved by the leadership.

Insiders in the party told The Hindu that Dr. Karan Singh's name had the approval of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, who wanted the veteran leader to play an important role in Delhi. However, it remains to be seen how the local leadership reacts to his appointment as Mr. Singh, a Rajya Sabha member from Delhi, has been termed as an "outsider'' by the local Congressmen who had expressed resentment when he was nominated by the party for Rajya Sabha. The decision to appoint Dr. Singh as Chairman of the Committee was apparently taken after infighting broke out among the top leaders for heading it.

Interestingly, the process to constitute the Campaign Committee had begun well before the distribution of party tickets but it was not finalised due to internal differences. Party men felt that although it was clear that the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, would be the star campaigner for the party, but it was important for someone to guide the entire campaign.

It is understood that the party president, Sonia Gandhi, would be flagging off the party's campaign by addressing two big public meetings in the Capital. Although, the venue of the meetings has not been decided till date, it is believed that one of the meetings will be held at the Ramlila Ground and the other somewhere in West Delhi.

The party leaders are of the view that Ms. Gandhi has already addressed two meetings in the run-up to the polls in East Delhi and Outer Delhi and this time she should be taken to other areas in order to give the necessary impetus to the party's campaign.

It is learnt that the party has already finalised the programmes of the Himachal Chief Minister, Virbhadra Singh, the Punjab Chief Minister, Amrinder Singh, and the Uttaranchal Chief Minister, N.D. Tiwari to address public meeting here.

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