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PCC, CLP changes a smooth affair in Rajasthan

JAIPUR: The leadership changes in Rajasthan Congress, carried out by the party high command during the past one month, remained a smooth affair with party men here mostly accepting the new heads for the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) and the Congress Legislature Party (CLP). Perhaps the fact that in both PCC and CLP, leaders from the same caste group replaced the outgoing ones must have helped.

As B.D. Kalla, a Minister in the Gehlot Government, was replaced as PCC chief by C.P. Joshi, also a former Minister, veteran party leader Ramnarain Choudhary was asked to make way for his fellow Jat, Hemaram Choudhary. An additional dimension to the new-look power structure was the appointment of a Dalit leader, Parasram Mordia, as working president of the PCC.

Now the State has a Brahmin as PCC president, a Jat as CLP leader and a Dalit as PCC working president, a combination the party expects to work well in the Assembly elections due next year. The previous time the PCC had a working president was when the late Abrar Ahmed was appointed to the post prior to the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Jat leader Narain Singh was the PCC president then.

In the present set-up, three major areas of Rajasthan, Mewar, Marwar and Shekhawati -- Udaipur, Jodhpur and part of Jaipur divisions, respectively -- are represented. Dr. Joshi is from Nathadwara in Udaipur division while Mr. Hemaram Choudhary is from Barmer district in Jodhpur division. Mr. Mordia is from Sikar district in the Shekhawati region to which Mr. Ramnarain Choudhary too belongs.

The decision on the PCC president’s post, which was preceded by that of the CLP leader, was accompanied by the nomination of Harendra Mirdha as AICC secretary. Along with him MLA and scion of the Alwar royal family Bhanwar Jitendra Singh too was chosen as AICC secretary. Mr. Mirdha, who had been an aspirant for the post of PCC chief, belongs to Nagaur.

As for the choice of the CLP leader, senior AICC functionaries, including Motilal Vora and Mukul Vasnik, had come here last week to gauge the mood of the party MLAs. On one-to one consultations, a majority of the MLAs reportedly wanted Ashok Gehlot to be the CLP leader. Yet the party went for the low-profile Hemaram Choudhary, who too was a Minister in the Gehlot Government.

What is discernible in the whole exercise is the preponderance of Gehlot men in the new team, which would prepare the party for the next Assembly elections.

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