Amidst controversy over ticket distribution for the urban body elections within the party, state Congress vice-president Rajeev Singh posted former Union minister Suresh Pachouri's statement on his FB account, leading to a new round of controversy.
The FB post said, "Former Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Suresh Pachouri clarified that he had not recommended a single name for the urban bodies' election to the party president. He further said that decision of the party organisation was supreme and appealed to all to vote for the official Congress candidate."
Congress state vice-president Manak Agrawal had resigned from his party post accusing Suresh Pachouri of influencing the party state leadership to get ticket for his 'cronies' at the expense of deserving candidates.
Manak's outcry was subsequent to change of candidates for municipal council chairpersonship from Hoshangabad and Itarsi, where his candidates were replaced at the last minute by Pachouri's candidates.
Reacting to Pachouri's statement on FB, Agrawal said, "After all that he has done, Pachouri is now being funny with us Congressmen. He got the names of candidates changed and now wants us to believe he is not involved anywhere in the ticket distribution exercise."
Another senior party leader on the condition of anonymity said, "Top party leaders from the state don’t want to be accountable. They will operate through their men in the committee and if there is any problem, they will pull the strings from Delhi to ensure tickets to their candidates."
{{/usCountry}}Another senior party leader on the condition of anonymity said, "Top party leaders from the state don’t want to be accountable. They will operate through their men in the committee and if there is any problem, they will pull the strings from Delhi to ensure tickets to their candidates."
{{/usCountry}}"They should be asked to give in writing the name of their candidates so that they could be held responsible if their candidates lose the election."