Axe to fall on some CWC members?
A one-day meeting of the AICC members on Tuesday authorised Congress president Sonia Gandhi to constitute the all-powerful Congress Working Committee and the central election committee.
Around 1,000-odd AICC delegates authorised Mrs Gandhi when the party’s election committee chief Oscar Fernandes spoke on the election schedule of the CWC.
Signalling a revamp of the CWC, Mrs Gandhi in her concluding speech said nominating members to the highest policy-making body was one of the toughest tasks and asked members to repose faith in her decisions. “You have given me the responsibility to nominate a new CWC. Nominating the members is not as easy as it seems. Since you have reposed faith in my leadership, someone should be ready to bear the loss (of CWC membership),” Mrs Gandhi said in her closing remarks at the AICC session here.
But in words of encouragement, she smilingly said that party workers do get an opportunity if they have patience. “Dhiraj rakho, kabhi na kabhi number aayega (Have patience your turn will come),” she said.
Mrs Gandhi mentioned that there were always complaints over some missing the bus and others getting a seat.
She said since it was a short AICC session, not many issues were touched in detail. “But in the plenary, all issues will be discussed in detail,” she said.
There have been no elections to CWC since Mrs Gandhi took over the reins of the organisation 12 years back.
Now talk has begun in the party as to who will face the axe. The name of Arjun Singh is prominently being mentioned by party leaders as to one who could get dropped in the reconstituted top policy-making body of the party. The 25-member CWC is the highest policy-making body of the party.
Mr Arjun Singh, who was HRD minister in the UPA-1 government, had failed to find a place in the UPA-2 coalition after the Lok Sabha elections last year.
The members of the CWC, headed by Mrs Gandhi, included Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, senior leaders Pranab Mukherjee, A.K. Antony, Motilal Vora, Mohsina Kidwai, Ambika Soni, Arjun Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Digvijay Singh, Rahul Gandhi, B.K. Hari Prasad, G. Venkataswamy, Janardan Dwivedi, Mallikarjuna Kharge, Mukul Wasnik, Prithviraj Chavan, V. Kishore Chandra Deo and V. Narayanasamy.
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