Congress wants to divest PCC chiefs from their responsibility if they want to contest LS polls

New Delhi, Jan 15: The Congress is planning that such leaders, who will be contesting Lok Sabha elections, they should be divested with the responsibility of state party president. The party is of the view that responsibility of the organisation must go to the executive president of the party during the elections.

Presidents of states who will be contesting Lok Sabha elections included UPCC president Raj Babbar, president of Punjab Congress Sunil Kumar Jakhar, president of Maharashtra Congress Ashok Shankarrao Chavan, president of Kerala and MP Mullappally Ramachandran. But it is being said that Ramchandran is not interested in contesting elections.

President of Jharkhand Congress Committee Ajay Kumar is more interested in running the party as party chief instead of contesting election. But after the Assembly debacle in Telengana, no senior leader is interested in keeping Uttam Kumar Reddy as the party president. State Congress president is not in mood to quit the post and want to contest elections.

However, the Congress is in mood to retain Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath and Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot as party presidents in their respective states till the Lok Sabha elections are over so there is no problem with the management of the elections. The BJP had won all the seats in these states except three in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi's expectation is very high from these states after the Congress has won Assembly elections from these three states. Though there was some problem in managing majority in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan therefore MLAs will not be allowed to contest Lok Sabha elections. But Chhattisgarh might field some MLAs for the Lok Sabha elections.

Some important leaders who had lost Assembly elections might be fielded for Lok Sabha that included Rameshwar Dudi, Ajay Singh of Madhya Pradesh and Karuna Shukla niece of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Chhattisgarh are the main contenders.