Chandigarh: With an eye to revamp the party in Haryana, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday held two meetings here with senior state leaders and pointedly asked them to immediately start the process to name the district presidents and form district level committees, something that has not been done since the past about 11 years.
For record, the Congress which has been out of power in Haryana since 2014, has been rampantly faction-ridden, hence without even district level organisation; It faced drubbing in the last assembly election despite a favourable wave, only because of the internal strife.
Briefing newspersons about the roadmap given by Rahul Gandhi, who is leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, the state party affairs incharge, B K Hariprasad, said it has been decided that the Central observers along with the state observers would visit all the 22 districts of the state and give a panel of six leaders aspiring to be district chiefs, before June 30 and also form the district committees before that.
The party leadership would select one of the six persons for the post, he said and added that any prominent person of the area or a well-known sports person could also apply for the post.
The conditions for the leaders aspiring to be district presidents should be between 35 and 55 year of age and a worker of the party for at least five years, he said and held that the party leader has made it clear that factionalism would not be tolerated at any cost.
Earlier, Gandhi reached the Chandigarh party office in Sector 9 here around noon and stayed for about three hours before flying back.
He held his first meeting with 17 senior leaders of the state including former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, state chief Udai Bhan, party general secretary and Sirsa MP Kumari Selja, former state chief Birender Singh and other senior leaders including Randeep Surjewala, Capt Ajay Yadav, MP Deepender Hooda and former state chief Ashok Tanwar. Gandhi later held a meeting with the observers of the party; the two meetings lasted for over two and half hours.
