Mallikarjun Kharge to visit Doon on 28 Jan
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 15 Jan: Newly appointed Congress leader in charge of party affairs in Uttarakhand, Selja Kumari has reached Dehradun for the first time since taking over. After reaching Dehradun, today, she held a series of meetings with party leaders and workers, and also party seniors. It may be recalled that currently Selja is also a national general secretary of the party.
It is believed that her current visit to Dehradun is in preparation for the forthcoming visit, here, of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge scheduled for 28 January. This information was also shared by Selja during her interaction with the party leaders at Congress Bhawan here.
Earlier, on her arrival at Jolly Grant Airport this morning, she was welcomed by PCC Chief Karan Mahara, Leader of the Opposition Yashpal Arya, former Chief Minister Harish Rawat, former PCC Chief Pritam Singh, AICC Secretary Qazi Nizamuddin and former PCC Chief Ganesh Godiyal.
On her way to Congress Bhawan, she was greeted along the way at several places by party activists including Doiwala, Harrawala, Rispana Bridge, etc. After her arrival at Congress Bhawan, she was given a grand welcome by the party leaders and workers.
Aware of the strong factionalism within the state unit of the party, she called upon the party leaders to forget their internal differences and get together to put up a tough fight in the upcoming Parliamentary Elections. She claimed that Congress had a strong chance to win all the 5 Lok Sabha seats from Uttarakhand. She also discussed with senior Congress leaders the upcoming programmes and visit of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge during meetings held with various committees of the party.
She said that the party will contest the elections on the issue of unemployment in the state. Mallikarjun Kharge will reach Uttarakhand on 28 January. Mallikarjun is coming to Uttarakhand for the first time after becoming the national president. He is also likely to address a public meeting in Dehradun.
Selja first held a meeting with the members of the Political Affairs Committee of the State Congress and discussed preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and the ‘Donate for the Country’ programme being run by the All India Congress Committee to collect funds for the upcoming polls. Sources said that details of Kharge’s upcoming visit to the state were also discussed. Selja left for Delhi this afternoon. Sources claim that the central leadership is making all out efforts to activate the party in Uttarakhand which presently appears to be fragmented and only active on social media.
In the welcome ceremony, MLAs Sumit Hridayesh, Rajendra Bhandari, Tilak Raj Behad, Adesh Chauhan, Vikram Negi, Mamta Rakesh, Furkan Ahmed, Gopal Singh Rana, Virendra Jati, Ravi Bahadur, Harish Dhami, Madan Singh Bisht, State Vice President, Organisation, Mathuradatt Joshi, State General Secretary, Organisation, Vijay Saraswat, Prakash Joshi, former ministers Hira Singh Bist, Nav Prabhat, Mantri Prasad Naithani, Shoorveer Singh Sajwan, former MP Mahendra Pal were among those present.
