‘Babaria is carrying out his duties responsibly and has not yet succumbed to pressure from any senior leader’.
New Delhi
Weeks after Gujarat Congress leader Deepak Babaria was appointed as the in-charge of Delhi and Haryana units of the party, Congress leaders at the Delhi unit have suggested that the in-charge has his own way of functioning. Babaria has started by notifying to his party men that if any position holder in the party does not turn up in three consecutive meetings without any solid reason, the member would be thrown out.
Sources privy to the developments indicate that Babaria has been carrying out his duties responsibly and has not yet succumbed to any pressure from any senior leader. According to sources, in a recently held meeting, there were a few senior leaders who were missing from the meeting, including Ajay Maken. It is believed that Babaria directly informed the proceedings of his political activities and conveyed about the missing leaders.
A senior Congress leader aware of the matter said that K.C. Venugopal had called Babaria over a phone call recently and imposingly wanted protests conducted in Delhi against the High Court’s decision of upholding the sessions court’s decision of disqualifying Rahul Gandhi, even as the capital city was reeling from floods. It is believed that Babaria had confronted Venugopal by saying that many people in Delhi had been displaced by the flooding and the protest against the HC’s decision would be perceived as a selfish activity of the party and would also give an issue to the opposition BJP which would be used against the Congress. However, Venugopal had insisted on complying, but Babaria delayed the protest by a week, which party leaders believe sends a strong message that he will do what he wants to do and what he thinks is right.
Party insiders aware of the matter said that Babaria has instructed the Delhi cadre to work actively. And he has also sought suggestions from the Delhi leaders as to how the crop of second line leadership can be groomed and nurtured for future growth of the party. However, a political analyst said, “Delhi does not even have a first line of capable leadership. And it is also not a place where a single person could take everything on his shoulders and run the team without getting hurdled by another senior leader. It has become a mixed bag. If Babaria is doing his work passionately, there will certainly be improvements on the ground. Moreover, there is no mass leader that the party has in Delhi. They also need to find out one who can be the face of the Delhi unit.”
A leader in the AICC said, “He is an honest man. He will not take money from anyone. Before this, he was the in-charge of Madhya Pradesh until the 2019 Lok Sabha debacle. He resigned right after Rahul Gandhi resigned and said that the responsibility of loss does not only lie on Rahul Gandhi, but on all the leaders who were duty bound to look after their cadres.”
However, the first meeting in Haryana, which was held last month and chaired by the newly appointed party affairs in-charge for the state Babaria, had not turned out to be an easy affair as the infighting among its top leaders took over again. Former PCC president Kumari Selja had exited the meeting mid-way, and told media persons that she had to leave early because of certain other engagements, of which the party leadership was aware.