Congress gets serious on one man-one post norm

With Lok Sabha elections barely a year away, the Congress leadership has decided to implement the one man-one post norm in the next party reshuffle.

With Lok Sabha elections barely a year away, the Congress leadership has decided to implement the one man-one post norm in the next party reshuffle.

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Congress sources said Union health minister and party general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, who has been repeatedly pleading for strict enforcement of the norm, could soon be divested of his organisational responsibilities.

At present, he is party general secretary in-charge of three states – Andhra Pradesh, a state in turmoil over the complex Telangana issue, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Azad mooted the proposal during the three-day Congress conclave at Jaipur earlier in January. Heading a party panel – one of the five groups formed to discuss national and international issues - on organisational strengths, Azad had suggested that ministers holding dual charge, both at Centre and state levels, should be divested of organisational responsibility a year before elections to enable them to focus on their departments.

Similarly, it was proposed that party office-bearers should not be inducted in central or state governments so that they were able to devote enough time to organisational affairs.

Azad had raised the issue again when Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi held his formal interaction with party functionaries after his anointment. He followed it up at a recent meeting Gandhi held with Andhra Pradesh MPs.

A senior leader said the party leadership is now moving to implement this norm in view of the approaching elections.

The move will also result in the exit of Andhra and Uttarakhand party chiefs, Botsa Satyanarayana and Yashpal Arya, who are also ministers in their states.

A source said Congress Working Committee member and in-charge of Bihar and Punjab affairs, Gulchain Singh Charak, could face the axe for his “repeated failures”. While the Congress failed to defeat ruling SAD in Punjab, the party candidate lost his deposit in the recent Maharajganj by-poll.