District president who performs well will be made minister when Congress returns to power: Rahul in Gujarat

Kickstarting its pilot project of appointment of the district leadership in the state, Gandhi, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, directed the Congress leaders to ensure the appointments are “done without any prejudice or bias”.

As part of his two-day Gujarat visit, Gandhi will launch the ‘Sangathan Sirjan Abhiyan’ in Modasa, Aravalli district, on Wednesday.

Gandhi’s entire focus is on the pilot project starting from Gujarat, the state where the Congress has been out of power for over three decades and is aiming to regain ground, leaders present at the meeting said.

“We were clearly told that our promotion and designation will be based strictly on our performance. As the entire focus is on Gujarat, Rahul Gandhi wants to win the state. He said only then he will be able to replicate the pilot project of organisational reforms in other states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. He said he is hopeful that if we all work well and select good people, nothing can stop the Congress,” former Congress MLA Gyasuddin Sheikh told The Indian Express.

“The message was loud and clear that only those leaders who perform effectively will get promotion… leaders who are active only during elections will not get the tickets…Those who perform well to be made a minister in the government, when it is formed,” Sheikh said.

Sources said Gandhi also raised the issue of poor female representation in the party positions and asked that focus should be laid on women, Dalits, minorities as well as deserving upper caste persons for the DCC and its presidents.
The meet was attended by 42 observers from the AICC and 183 from Gujarat PCC who were appointed on April 12.

“It is clear that the most capable person will become the district president,” Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

The observers were directed to stay in the districts assigned to them for a minimum of three days.

Gujarat PCC President Shaktisinh Gohil said, “During the three-day period, opinion will be sought while assessing the capability and working style of candidates based on which the committee will submit their names.”

One of the leaders present at the meeting said, “A leader raised the issue of marriage horses still running in the party. To this, Rahul Gandhi advised on finishing the DCC project with complete honesty, visiting the districts and at the same time, bringing such names to him.”
Earlier this month, to make a point about the efficacy of the party’s leaders, Gandhi had referred to the Congress mixing up its “race horses with its wedding horses”.

Another source said, “Rahul ji told us to make sure that each and every appointment is made based on merit as the party is working towards giving more power and independence to district unit presidents. He also told the AICC and PCC observers to not have a mutual understanding over the selection process and to not let anyone influence the appointment process.”

Party leaders, including 25 members of Congress Coordination Committee, also met at the Circuit House later in the day. Congress’s General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal and Gujarat in-charge Mukul Wasnik along with senior state leaders were present.

The appointments in Gujarat are a pilot project for the party’s organizational overhaul keeping the DCCs at the centre. The party leadership is looking to “the Gujarat experiment” to understand if this model is foolproof or not. “If there are any improvements to be made, we can do that,” a leader said.

HOW THE EXERCISE WILL BE CARRIED OUT

At the Ahmedabad meeting, the observers were given instructions to take the opinion of all the leaders and workers of the district and submit six names for each District Congress Committee (DCC) president. The list of possible names of district presidents will have to be submitted to the state committee by May 8.

The observers were given instructions to take the opinion of all the leaders and workers of the district and submit six names for each DCC president. The team of observers that will be chaired by an AICC member along with four PCC members has been asked to visit the districts from April 23 to May 8 and submit a report on the suitable candidates for the posts of DCCs. The names of the 41 district and city presidents will be announced by May 31.