The Hindu : New Delhi News : Dikshit writes to AICC leaders on Councillors

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 18, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Dikshit writes to AICC leaders on Councillors

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 17 . Amid reports of indiscipline and intense factionalism among the ruling Congress Councillors in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, has urged the party high command to immediately initiate steps to end the chaos in the civic body.

In separate letters to the AICC leader in-charge Delhi, Ahmed Patel, and the AICC secretary, Anil Shastri, Ms. Dikshit requested them to nominate a senior person as observer to oversee the conduct of the annual civic body election process this week.

Ignoring the directive of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, a large number of party Councillors have filed their nominations for various posts including that of the Chairpersons and Deputy Chairpersons of 12 Zones and for the seven vacant seats in the all powerful Standing Committee of the MCD.

Such has been the scramble for power among the party members, that for the 12 posts of Zonal Chairmen, 32 Congress Councillors have filed their nominations, while 16 filed their papers for the seven vacancies in the Standing Committee. For the elections to be held on Tuesday and Wednesday there was no withdrawal of nominations till late this evening.

In fact, for several posts, nearly half-a-dozen nominations have been filed including Central Zone Chairman, Standing Committee member from the West Zone, Chairman Shahdara South Zone and Chairman Shahdara North Zone. The Municipal Secretary's office said no nomination was received for the Deputy Chairman Rohini Zone.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president, Prem Singh, has appointed the DPCC secretary, Rakesh Rajora, as the observer for MCD. He was also the observer of the party in the civic body on Saturday, the last day of filing of nomination papers. In his very presence, the party Councillors had filed their nomination papers ignoring the list he had taken along with him.

In a statement, the BJP leader and member of the Standing Committee, Vijender Kumar Gupta, claimed that the ruling Congress in the MCD lacked effective leadership. The very fact that a large number of Councillors have filed their nomination papers only reflects that the DPCC has no control over its elected representatives in the civic body.

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