Amid disquiet, Congress works out 1,200 placements for party workers

Bengaluru: The ruling Congress wants to finalise this month names of party workers for about 1,200 positions available in various boards and corporations in order to soothe the cadre that has slipped into some amount of despondency. 

A committee under Home Minister G Parameshwara has held two meetings so far to identify ‘deserving’ Congress workers who can be appointed as directors/members at boards and corporations. The exercise is crucial for Congress to kick enthusiasm into its cadre, sources said.

The committee has decided to get three names from every Assembly constituencies where it has its own MLA and two from other segments. It will seek two names from every district Congress committee. Recommendations will be received from the party’s frontal organisations. 

Some names will be left to the discretion of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar, also the Karnataka Congress president. 

The committee is thinking of finalising at least 224 women, sources said.

Social justice will be a criterion while finalising names so that there is enough representation from OBCs, minorities and SC/STs. 

The committee’s next meeting is scheduled on September 13. “Deserving party workers and suitable people will be considered keeping in mind the criteria,” Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad, a committee member, said. 

‘Despondency’

There is palpable disgruntlement among Congress workers who feel they have not been given their due after the party came to power last year. The party took eight months to appointment chairpersons to boards and corporation, for which mostly the leaders were picked. While appointing the guarantee implementation committees, the choice was largely based on names recommended by MLAs.

Recently, the appointment of university Syndicate members left party workers disappointed again, Congress insiders said. “The biggest grouse has been our own ministers and MLAs. The MLAs complain that ministers are inaccessible. Workers say same about MLAs,” a Congress functionary said. “There’s an odd despondency in cadre.”