Battered and Bruised, Punjab Congress Starts New Candidate Selection Process to Trim State Unit

After losing the Punjab assembly elections, the Congress is trying to restructure its grassroot organisational structure skirting the age-old tradition of appointing block level leaders and instead choosing candidates through interviews.

Three months after being appointed as the Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring has initiated the exercise. The party says in what seem to be a first-of-its-kind exercise, it has started interviewing workers for 235 posts of block president across the state. So far, 118 block presidents have been appointed and the remaining 116 posts will be filled in in the coming days.

“We really want to pick up the best from the ground. The interview process helps us appoint block president in fair and just manner analyse their strengths. This helps in screening the block presidents, who understand the working and philosophy of the party,” said Raja Warring.

He said the appointments of district presidents and other office-bearers of the Punjab Congress would be done in the next one week.

Sources said Congress, given its earlier experience, was trying to trim the state unit so as to shrug off the image of a “top heavy”. “An attempt is being made to trim the state unit and make it smart and sharp with new ideas. The more we get new and sharp ideas from the ground, the easier it will be to reshape and recast the state unit,” said a senior party leader.

The state unit has been plagued with dissensions in the recent past and it was with the idea of infusing fresh blood that Warring was brought in as the party chief. Not just dissensions, the party has been stung by the arrest of senior party leader Navjot Singh Sidhu who is in jail for an old road rage case.

Read all the Latest News and Breaking News here