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Congress high command does a balancing act

Rajesh Ahuja

Executive body of party's Chandigarh unit constituted

CHANDIGARH : The Congress high command has tried to perform a balancing act among the various factions in the newly constituted executive body of the party's Chandigarh unit by not giving the "mandate'' to any particular group.

Even though B.B.Bahl has been retained as the party president in the list of office-bearers which was released after an inordinate delay, close associates of the Union Minister of State for Finance, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Haryana Power Minister Venod Sharma, and All-India Congress Committee secretary Manish Tewari have bagged the posts of vice-president, general secretaries and district presidents.

While Sunil Parti, who has served the CTCC for the last 15 years as general secretary, is a close associate of Mr.Venod Sharma, Subhash Chawla and Ram Pal Sharma are two other veterans owing allegiance to Mr.Bansal who have been accommodated in the body. Sitting Councillor Chandermukhi Sharma and Ravinder Singh Palli are said to be close associates of Mr.Tewari.

There is, however, an undercurrent of resentment amongst supporters of Mr.Bahl over the inclusion of some persons who have only recently joined the Congress but have found place in the executive body thanks to their close association with Mr.Bansal.

A close associate of Mr.Bahl told The Hindu on condition of anonymity that some of these ``persons'' did not apparently have a "clean image'' and this had been highlighted several times even by the opposition parties. He said that this was a crucial year as elections to the Municipal Corporation were just round the corner and it was vital that the party presented a "clean face'' before the electorate.

As per the list released by the party office, the vice-presidents include Ram Pal Sharma, Subhash Chawla, Surinder Bhatia, Chandermukhi Sharma and Bajeet Sodhi while the general secretaries are Sunil Parti, Satpal Gupta, Kamlesh, D.S.Babla, Anu Chatrath, Mukesh Bassi and Ravinder Singh Palli. Jagat Sharma is the treasurer while J.N.Shastri and Amarjit Sethi are the spokespersons. Surjeet Chaudhary has been appointed president of district urban-I unit, Pushpa Sharma of district urban-II unit and Manmohan Singh of rural unit.

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