New Delhi: In a jolt to the Congress just six months before elections in the Capital, party’s Delhi unit in-charge PC Chacko has asked the top brass to relieve him of his duties.
The development comes just two days after interim president Sonia Gandhi held a meeting with Chacko and district presidents to discuss the selection of a new chief for the party's city unit. The post has been lying vacant after the demise of Sheila Dikshit last month.
Chacko had then rejected media reports suggesting names of Navjot Singh Sidhu and Shatrughan Sinha as probables for the post. "Such reports are mere conjectures. The next Delhi Congress president will be from Delhi," he said.
Earlier this month, Gandhi met Delhi Congress leaders, after taking over charge of interim president. Delhi Congress leaders said it will be a "difficult" exercise to find a replacement of Dikshit, who despite her age had led the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress managed to push AAP to third place on five of the seven Lok Sabha constituencies, besides getting more votes than the ruling party in Delhi, they said. Dikshit, a three-time Delhi chief minister and senior Congress leader, passed away on July 20.
"Several names are doing the rounds for the Delhi president's post. The three working presidents — Rajesh Lilothia, Haroon Yusuf and Devender Yadav — are there. Also, seniors like former presidents of the Delhi Congress like JP Agarwal and Subhash Chopra could be made president," a Congress leader said.
However, sources close to Agarwal said he was "reluctant" to take the charge due to his age. Names of Dikshit's son Sandip Dikshit and former minister in the Sheila Dikshit government Yoganand Shastri are also in the reckoning, party leaders said.
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