Merit to decide postings in state Cong

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 30

Battling political implications post the Jat agitation, the Congress has decided to make merit the criteria for building its organisation in Haryana, where it lost power to the BJP in the last elections.

Congress general secretary in charge of the state Kamal Nath is learnt to have asked state party chief Ashok Tanwar to evolve a comprehensive criteria for appointment and selection of district Congress chiefs, an exercise which is underway.

The Tribune has learnt that Nath has categorically argued for electoral or organisational experience to be one of the principal criteria for appointment of district chiefs. The appointments have been pending since Tanwar has taken charge as Haryana Congress president after nine years of no change in the state unit structure when former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s loyalists dominated the scene.

Foremost task before Nath is to set up district Congress units under able chiefs. It is learnt that he is in favour of rewarding Congress loyalists and workers in the process. This means the aides of recent entrant to Congress, Kuldeep Bishnoi, may have to wait for their chance at wresting important organisational positions in the party.

Nath, a nine-time Lok Sabha MP and the senior most in the Lower House, is engaging wide sections of state leadership and workers before finalising the Haryana Congress structure.

He is expected to even screen candidates which Tanwar recommends for appointment to district the Congress president post.

Sources say the Congress wants to promote people who have the potential to aid its rise in the face of stiff competition from the INLD and the BJP.

“At the organisational level you need solid people who have fought and won elections, or have strengthened the party in their respective areas. We have asked for detailed criteria for appointment of district Congress chiefs in Haryana and will follow these. All state leaders, including state chief, is welcome to recommend nominees, but the leadership will vet every name. Genuine workers will be rewarded,” a senior Congress leader privy to Haryana developments told The Tribune today.