After the controversial letter to the Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi asking for a full-time party president and 11-point agenda for reforms in the 134-year-old organisation signed by 23 senior Congress leaders, what is evident now is the annoyance of UP state leaders and workers against the 23 signatories, as most of the UP Congress leaders and workers are deeply attached to Nehru-Gandhi family. It started out from Lakimpur Kheri, where all the Congress workers have opposed senior party leader Jitin Prasada in his own constituency. They are now targeting senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and questioning his role when he was general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh. Former UP Congress president Nirmal Khattri accused Azad for forcing Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance on the party in the 2017 assembly election. Rahul Gandhi, too, had initially opposed the alliance. While Azad, who is the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, declared that many Congress workers having true interest of the party in mind would welcome the letter and if the party did not change it would continue to be in Opposition for next 50 years, but Nirmal Khattri has blamed Azad for destroying the Congress in UP in 1996 when he made the Congress enter into alliance with BSP and once again into an alliance with SP in 2017. Both the times, Congress got the lowest number of seats in the UP assembly.
NADDA OVERSEES BJP CAMPAIGN IN POLL-BOUND BIHAR
After the Supreme Court cleared the path for holding the Bihar Assembly election 2020 as per schedule, all the parties have become active in election campaigns, especially the BJP. BJP national president JP Nadda assured the party MPs that there would be a respectable understanding on seats with JD(U) and other alliance partners. According to sources, JP Nadda would discuss seat-sharing in the second week of September when he visits Bihar. Devandra Fadnavis is going to visit Patna on September 6. Nadda has instructed party leaders and the Members of Parliament from Bihar to prepare the programme for outreach across the state covering every booth. He also reiterated that the MPs would have to ensure not only the victory of BJP candidates but of those of the allies as well.
SONIA-CHOSEN PANEL TO HOLD POLLS TO PICK NEW CONGRESS PRESIDENT
After the Congress Working Committee meeting, Sonia Gandhi agreed to continue on the post of the party national president till a new president is elected with the organisation of the election at the All India Congress Committee session. To this end, Sonia Gandhi is expected to soon announce the creation and composition of a new panel asked to conduct the organisation of polls to pick a new chief of the party and the members of the CWC as per the Congress constitution. 12 of the 25 CWC members have to be elected by AICC delegates and rest are appointed by the Congress president. Due to Covid-19, the time period of election is extended to six months. AICC election was held for the president’s post in 2000 when Sonia Gandhi comprehensively defeated Jiten Prasada, father of Jitin Prasada. That was the only time Sonia Gandhi faced a contest during her over 20 years as the Congress president. The previous CEA headed by the present Kerala Congress chief Mullapally Ramchandran was dissolved soon after the election of Rahul Gandhi as party chief in December 2017. Rahul Gandhi resigned from the post in May last year and Sonia Gandhi took over as interim president in August last year.
ANTI-CORRUPTION MASCOT ANNA HAZARE SPURNS DELHI BJP CHIEF’S INVITE
The anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare has refused an invitation from Adesh Gupta, the Delhi BJP unit chief, to join an agitation against alleged corruption by the ruling AAP. The AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had parted ways with Hazare in 2013 over the formation of the AAP after the movement against corruption of which the Hazare had become the mascot. Since then, Hazare’s statements have been seen by many as tacit support for the BJP. However, Hazare tried to rid himself of the taint. He wrote: “What could be more unfortunate than leaders of a party, which has youth cadres in big numbers and claims to have highest number of members in the world, urging an 83-year-old fakir like Anna Hazare who resides in a temple’s 10X12 feet room and has no asset and power, to join in its protest. In 2014, your party showed dreams of a corruption-free India.”
RAGHUVANSH PRASAD SINGH TO STAY BACK IN RJD DESPITE SETBACKS
Former union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, previously slated to resign as RJD national vice-president in June, will stay back in the party after receiving a message from its national president, Lalu Prasad Yadav. The senior RJD leader with a Rajput vote base was reportedly upset with attempts by his archrival and former MP, Ram Kishore Singh, to join RJD. RP Singh had decided to step down from the party post on June 23 in protest against RK Singh’s overtures to RJD. On Saturday, Tejasvi Yadav played down media questions on Raghuvansh trying to leave the party. However, now with Lalu Yadav sending across a message to Raghuvansh persuading him to stay back within the party, things have settled down. The RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari has said:“Raghuvansh babu has been a committed RJD leader: we do not see him leaving the party.” (IPA)
Rural Jobs Growth Decline In August Shooting Up Unemployment 