Jaipur: The organizational reform exercise of appointing district Congress committee (DCC) presidents by consulting grassroots workers got dominated by nepotism in Rajasthan Congress. 15 of the 45 district presidents appointed under the Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan a couple of days ago are from political families.
The leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, had launched Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan to strengthen the grassroots organization of the party. The elected DCC presidents were removed for this, and an exercise of consulting the grassroots workers for the appointment of DCC presidents was carried out. Leaders from other states were sent as observers to make this exercise transparent and unbiased.
But this two-month-long process yielded nothing extraordinary, as 15 of the 45 district presidents are from political families. Besides this, 12 sitting and 5 former MLAs have been appointed as DCC presidents, which has further reduced the opportunity for new faces to take the guard.
Some interesting appointments include Raghuveer Meena as DCC president of Udaipur. Meena was a member of the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the party.
Likewise, Vikas Chaudhary, who shifted from BJP to Congress just before the 2023 assembly elections, has been made DCC president of Ajmer. Choudhary was a contender for the BJP ticket from Kishangarh but later joined Congress and was elected MLA.
The party workers said that the exercise launched with good intentions has failed to deliver the desired results. “ We were hoping to have new faces, but established political families and leaders are dominating the list," said a party worker on anonymity.
Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasara said, “ We have no role in the selection of district presidents. That is the high command's jurisdiction.
