E-Paper
DCC tries to overcome Tewari hurdle
THE RELUCTANCE of senior Congress leaders and party workers to accept Badri Narayan Tewari as the mayoral candidate has left the district leadership worried.
THE RELUCTANCE of senior Congress leaders and party workers to accept Badri Narayan Tewari as the mayoral candidate has left the district leadership worried.
To resolve the issue the District Congress Committee (DCC) has summoned a meeting on Thursday. Senior party leaders including Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal, MLAs Ajay Kapoor and Sanjeev Dariabadi, Abdul Mannan and Mahesh Dixit along with others are scheduled to take part in the meet.
The candidature of Tewari courted controversy from day one. Not only senior party leaders are opposed to Tewari but also grass root workers are not too eager to accept him.
The common grudge against Tewari is that he has never taken part in party functions. They also accuse him of being ideologically more close to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Taking serious note of the growing resentment against Tewari’s candidature among lower rung party workers, the DCC decided to meet and resolve the issue. Party leaders belonging to factions led by Sriprakash Jaiswal and Ajay Kapoor are expected to attend the meet.
In the party circles, Tewari is being seen as Jaiswal’s candidate and therefore leaders close to Kapoor faction have kept themselves away from the campaign so far. They were not even present in the nomination procession of Tewari. DCC president Mahesh Dixit, party MLA Sanjeev Dariabadi and Shanker Datt Mishra were the only leaders to be present alongside Tewari when he filed his papers.
Incidentally, newly appointed DCC president Mahesh Dixit belongs to the Jaiswal faction and he replaced Abdul Mannan, a Kapoor loyalist, who held the post for 10 years.
If tomorrow’s meeting succeeds to break the ice between the two factions will only become clear when campaigning picks up in the coming days.
