Dr Ram Prakash, former minister and PCC General Secretary, has been appointed working president in place of Randeep Surjewala, who is now a minister in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government.The decision to continue with the working president's post is essentially meant to pacify the anti-Bhajan Lal faction in the state unit. Dr. Ram Prakash is stated to be close to Finance Minister Birendra Singh although Mr. Hooda did not raise any objections to this appointment either.
In addition, Congress President Sonia Gandhi also cleared the appointment of Mr. Charan Dal Mahant, presently working president of the Chhattisgarh PCC, as the acting president pending a final decision. As a result, AICC treasurer Motilal Vora who was doubling as the PCC chief, will be relinquishing this post.
Gujarat is now the only state which remains to get a PCC chief.
These appointments were held up primarily because of the intense infighting in the state units. Mr. Bhajan Lal's detractors were pushing for their respective candidates but the Haryana strongman insisted that he would only step down if his son, Kuldeep Bishnoi, was made the PCC chief. This was not agreeable to the Congress leadership since his other son is the Haryana deputy chief minister.
In such a situation, the best option was to retain Mr. Bhajan Lal. The party felt it would not be fair to dislodge him at this stage as he has not been keeping well. It was also decided to continue with him as it is in keeping with the age-old Congress policy of appointing PCC chiefs who have an
adversarial relationship with their respective chief ministers.
As in the case of Haryana, the Congress leadership was also compelled to resort to a balancing act in Chhattisgarh.
