Cong forgets Meira is Speaker,names her in Bihar PCC list

“Only Anil Sharma and I have the list. Meira Kumar’s name is not there,” said Tytler. Shown a copy of the PCC list signed by him,he said: “I don’t know. It is Anil Sharma’s mistake.”

On the use of caste names,Tytler said: “We had to name the castes because out of over 45 castes (in the state),barely four have been dominating the PCC so far. We did it to ensure representation of all castes.”

While parties do use caste names in internal documents to ensure fair representation of all castes in different bodies and during allocation of poll tickets,it is probably the first time that the Congress has publicly declared castes of its office-bearers.

This use of caste names,apparently done to woo different communities,comes at a time when the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) prepares to launch its membership drive in the state from Tuesday. AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi,an advocate of politics of development rather than caste and religion,is set to launch the party’s campaign later this month. He is scheduled to make an extensive tour of the state to promote the party’s membership drive.

Meanwhile,a section of senior party leaders from Bihar were learnt to have launched a signature campaign to protest against the constitution of a jumbo PCC. Many leaders were planning to resign from the newly constituted body in protest against inclusion of “outsiders” and those with tainted records. Senior leaders were camping in New Delhi to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi in this connection.

The timing of the constitution of the PCC has also come as a surprise since the AICC is set to announce the schedule for organisation elections in a few days.