Mumbai Congress’s ward-level leaders asked to record their choice of city unit chief

In an unprecedented method adopted to pick city unit chief of the party, Congress’s central leadership asked its 227 district presidents to record their choice for

In an unprecedented method adopted to pick city unit chief of the party, Congress’s central leadership asked its 227 district presidents to record their choice for the Mumbai president’s post over a recorded call. The central leadership has announced that it will select the president of its Mumbai city by December-end.

Congress party leadership has announced that it will select the president of its Mumbai city by December-end. (HT PHoto)

Mumbai Congress has 227 block presidents representing the municipal wards in the city. The block presidents received a message from HK Patil, Maharashtra in-charge for the party, in the afternoon instructing them to receive subsequent calls and follow the instructions. During the recorded calls, they were asked to record their choice for the post. Patil has already held rounds of meetings with key leaders from the city over past two months as part of the process of appointment of the new city chief and to understand the problems the unit facing.

“This is happening for the first time that the workers in the last layer of leadership chain were asked for their opinion. Though the selection would not be fully dependent on the exercise, it will certainly be given a weightage besides the opinion given by other rank of leadership during earlier meetings,” said a senior leader from Mumbai Congress.

The exercise, however, led to unexpected goof ups as some of the calls went to former block presidents who have already quit the party. “The block presidents were appointed five years ago. Some of them have died while some defected to other parties and a few shifted to other cities/districts. Some of the district presidents did not even know how to deal with an online poll and missed the opportunity to record the name of their choice. Some of them have also given names that are not even in the zone of consideration for the post,” said another senior leader.

Patil on Thursday said that the new Mumbai president will be elected by month-end and the city unit will be in election mode by January. With the elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, one of the richest civic bodies in the country, just 13 months away, the Mumbai Congress does not have a full-time president for more than a year.