PCC war room springs surprises

Hyderabad: While the Congress is adopting new technology, party workers are still following old traditions in enrollment of members. As a result, members of other parties have been enrolled as Congress members by mistake, as verification by the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) showed. 

In the old days Congress leaders used to fill the membership books with the names of their family, friends and colleagues. There was no verification. Now the All India Congress Committee (AICC) has set up war rooms in every PCC office to check enrolment of members. Yet, when the TPCC did a random verification, some members said that they are TRS members and others were Telugu Desam and BJP members. Some others said that they belong to no political party and are not interested in becoming members of any political party. 

To encourage more enrolment, a worker who enrolls 50 members at polling booth level, will receive a call personally from AICC president Rahul Gandhi congratulating him/her on this contribution to the party. This may explain the enthusiasm to enrol members without speaking to them or verifying their credentials. Not everyone will get a personal call; Mr Gandhi will call at random and the rest will get a pre-recorded message by him.

H. Venugopal who is in charge of the TPCC war room told this reporter that it is not possible to verify each and every member and names sent in by workers are verified at random. In this random verification mistakes were found which will be rectified before finalising the lists.

Uttam kickstarts works to ready party for polls

TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy will hold an extended meeting with party leaders on Saturday to gear up the party for the elections.

Mr Reddy has invited the in-charges of all Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies and district Congress committee presidents for the meeting. AICC general secretary and TS incharge R.C. Khuntia along with AICC secretaries incharge of the state will participate.

Each of the AICC secretaries has been handed 40 Assembly constituencies, and will hold discussions with the in-charges of the segments on the party position, groupism and steps to strengthen the party.

Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy and Mr Khuntia will also participate in the meetings and will sort out any differences among party leaders.  The AICC secretaries will collect the list of aspirants for Assembly nominations and prepare a list.