In attempt to bridge gap between party and MLAs, Cong chief gets volley of complaints

Non-cooperating cadres, unapproachable union ministers and absence of senior leaders from the field — these were some of the complaints of the Congress MLAs which they conveyed to new UP Congress chief Nirmal Khatri when they met him in Lucknow on Friday.

The meeting was called with an aim to bridge the gap between the MLAs and party leaders of the state, which allegedly widened in the past few years because of differences between former state president Rita Bahuguna Joshi and former Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Pramod Tiwari.

Since, Joshi is busy campaigning for her nephew Saket Bahuguna, who is contesting for Tehri Lok Sabha by-election in Uttarakhand, she could attend the meeting. Even out of eight newly appointed zonal presidents, only one — Raja Ram Pal — attended the meeting.

Khatri, however, downplayed the absence of senior leaders saying, "The meeting was not meant for zonal presidents. The CLP had just invited them. But, they could not attend because most of them have been given the task to complete the re-organisation of district, city and block committees under them in the next two months and are busy working," said Khatri after the meeting.

During the meeting, MLAs were asked to spread awareness about the central government schemes and inform people that the "FDI and coal block" issues raised by the opposition parties is a "planned conspiracy" against the UPA.

However, Congress MLAs complained that they are not respected by senior leaders. "We are being asked to enthuse party workers but who would enthuse us. During agitations, senior leaders of other parties lead the protests but it is not so in our party. Union Ministers are difficult to approach and we least informed about our central schemes. So how can we tell people in our area that we have some importance within the party," said a Congress MLA. Khatri promised MLAs that the state unit of the party would act as a link and would ensure presence of senior leaders during party programmes.

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