PC Chako to head Delhi Congress affairs

NEW DELHI: Sources said senior Congress leader P.C. Chako will be the party’s new in-charge of Delhi affairs as AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmad is leaving on a long vacation to Canada. Former Janata Dal (United) legislator Shoaib Iqbal is also set to join the Congress.

The Delhi Congress has already started the process of constituting its new block and ward committees. The party’s information technology wing has also conducted a trial run of its social media applications, which will be launched early next week.

Sources said that Mr Iqbal is in the process of joining the Congress. A five-time legislator from Matia Mahal, Mr Iqbal recently met senior Congress leaders and expressed his desire to join the party.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is said to have given her green signal to the JD(U) MLA. Mr Iqbal’s son is a municipal councillor from Turukman Gate and his nephew is a member of the municipal body from Jama Masjid.

Mr Iqbal’s move to join the Congress is being interpreted as an attempt by the party to woo the support of the Muslim community, which had voted in favour of the AAP in the Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress had failed to register its win in any of the 70 Assembly segments in the Lok Sabha polls and faced a humiliating defeat by winning just eight seats in the last Assembly elections.

A senior Congress leader said that Mrs Gandhi has also given her consent to appoint Mr Chacko as the party’s in-charge Delhi affairs after Mr Ahmad’s request for two-month leave to visit relatives in Canada.

Mr Ahmad was made in-charge of the party’s affairs in Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Union Territory of Chandigarh in June last year.

The formal announcement about Mr Chacko, former MP from Thrissur Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, taking charge of party’s Delhi affairs will be made shortly.

The Delhi Congress has started the process for the selection of members for its ward and block committees, the sources said. After facing humiliating defeat in the 2013, the party dissolved all its district, block and ward committees.

“We will soon be reconstituting our block and ward committees,” a local leader told this newspaper. “The district committees will be constituted  after block and ward committees.”

The IT department has conducted trial runs of its social media applications. Delhi Congress IT chairperson Radhika Khera said that the party would soon be launching 70 Facebook pages, each dedicated to one Assembly segment. “

We are going to start 70 WhatsApp numbers. Our representatives in each constituency will transmit the data to their members in each of the 11,763 polling booths, who in turn would share it with the members of their respective groups.”

Ms Khera said that the party’s IT department was ready with its live YouTube channel, website, Instagram and Pintrest applications. “Initially, we will be launching all these applications in Hindi and English. At a later stage, we will be sending across our messages in Urdu, Punjabi and other languages as well.”