'Self-respect non-negotiable': Anand Sharma quits as Himachal Congress Steering Committee Chairman

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, August 21

Days after veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad declined to accept the role of Jammu and Kashmir Congress Campaign Committee Chairman, senior leader Anand Sharma on Sunday resigned as Chairman of the Himachal Congress Steering Committee, formed on April 26 ahead of state elections later this year.

Sharma, 69, in a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, cited instances where he was not even informed of key election strategy meetings in Himachal Pradesh and said, “My self-respect is non-negotiable.”

Sharma, however, said in the letter that he would campaign for party candidates.

The former Union Minister and ex-deputy leader of Congress in the Rajya Sabha is embarking on a four day tour of Himachal Pradesh from Tuesday to mobilise his supporters.

Sonia Gandhi had on April 26 appointed Himachal Congress president, CLP leader and Chairman of Campaign Committee AICC besides announcing eight other committees, including a Steering Committee with Anand Sharma as Chairman and Asha Kumari as convenor.

In the letter to the Congress president, which the Tribune has accessed, Sharma said the multiplicity of committees and overlapping of functions required clarity for functional purposes. “I had requested the general secretary organisation and AICC in-charge to clarify the mandate of the steering committee to delineate its mandate and role,” Sharma wrote.

He said meetings of the core group of Himachal Congress and senior leaders on election strategy and preparations have since been held both in Delhi and Shimla, but he has not been kept in the loop.

“On 20th June meetings of senior leaders including PCC President, CLP leader and Chairman Campaign Committee and those of other committees were held for election preparations. On August 7 and 8, in charge and central AICC observers visited Shimla. Meetings of core group, senior leaders and HPCC General house were convened. The Chairman of the Steering Committee was neither informed nor invited for any of the meetings held, not even for the general house,” the letter states, adding that he was resigning from the post.

Sharma also wrote in the letter to Sonia Gandhi that he would campaign for Congress candidates.

Azad’s and Sharma’s dissociation from election responsibilities come as a setback to the Congress in a key year when Himachal will go to elections later this year and the electoral rolls of Jammu and Kashmir are being finalised, with polls expected any time now.

Both the leaders are prominent members of the G-23 grouping which has been demanding meaningful and transparent organisational elections in the party from the block to the Congress chief and CWC’s level.

The G-23 is also learnt to be regrouping with Congress chief’s election process getting under way from today.

As per a previously approved CWC schedule, the full-time Congress chief was to be elected any time between August 21 and September 20.

The Congress Election Authority chief Madhusudan MIstry has said they have sent the election schedule to Sonia Gandhi for final endorsement of the actual date for the election of the new Congress chief.

The party is silent on the dates with Rahul Gandhi disinterested to run and no succession plan in sight.

G-23 leaders are also watching the internal election process.

So far as Sharma goes, his supporters today said it was wrong to say he had never contested elections. Sharma had contested the Shimla Assembly seat against BJP stalwart Daulat Ram Chauhan in 1982 and lost marginally by around 1,200 votes.

The subsequent election petition Sharma filed was successful in the state high court which disqualified Chauhan.

The Supreme Court also upheld relief to Sharma who did not go in for fresh elections as then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked him to work with Rajiv Gandhi at the national level.

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