Cong asks UP dist chiefs for report cards

The Uttar Pradesh Congress is undertaking a massive exercise to evaluate the performance of partymen at the district level. To begin with, t...

The Uttar Pradesh Congress is undertaking a massive exercise to evaluate the performance of partymen at the district level.

To begin with, the party headquarters is dispatching circulars to all district unit heads and office bearers asking them to be in the state capital on January 29 and 30 8216;8216;but only after completing the groundwork8217;8217;.

Each district unit head will have to give details of his activities of the past six months with newspaper cuttings in which reports of their activities have been published.

They have also been asked to submit details of the total number of committees formed by them during the period at the nyay panchayat and booth level.

They are also required to furnish details of the total number of membership forms given to them and how many of these have been used for which money was deposited at the party headquarters.

For the Congressmen the most cumbersome job in these directives will be giving point-wise details of the issues which the party can take up in each district to gain popularity among masses. Besides the directives, they have also been given an eight-point dossier which they have to complete before attending the meeting.

Further information will have to be provided, by the district unit heads, regarding where the party office was operating from and the telephone number of the place. 8216;8216;This has been done following reports that in some of the districts the local Congress leaders have rented out the offices and were running the party from their own house,8217;8217; party spokesman Akhilesh Pratap Singh told The Indian Express.

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The partymen have also been directed to suggest how the party can improve its performance. 8216;8216;This exercise is aimed at self-assessment before the polls,8217;8217; said state party chief Arun Kumar Singh alias Munna.

Party president Sonia Gandhi had evinced much interest in party affairs in the state especially after the debacle in the last Assembly elections in which only 25 party candidates won. She recently held a meeting with the party MLAs following reports that Mayawati was trying to engineer a split.

Sonia had also toured different divisions last month and met party workers at the grassroots level for feedback on the party affairs.

8216;8216;The exercise is the first of its kind in the party and the leaders will find it hard to give wrong information as each point has been balanced with counter checks. The party will have a real assessment of its popularity through this meeting, the report of which will finally be sent to the party high command,8217;8217; Akhilesh said.