Neglect of party workers led to Congress rout in Jodhpur

Jodhpur: A review meeting of the Congress city unit on Sunday, aimed at looking into the reasons for the party's loss in Jodhpur, turned out to be a platform for the party workers to vent their anger, grudges and discontents. They distinctly held the caucus around caretaker chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his disconnect with the party workers responsible for the rout.
Disrespect of the party workers and ignorance to their opinions and suggestion as well as the arbitrary selection of candidates were some of the reasons, attributed to the ignominious performance of the party in the recently held assembly election.
“The workers were ignored in ticket distribution. They did not have any say in finalisation of the candidates due to which the workers were turned off. This had a direct impact on the campaigning,” said a former party councillor Rajesh Borana.
He further added that there was no sense of respect of the workers in the party, which disappointed them and led them to turn inactive.
“It is easy to blame workers but what can they do if the selection of candidate was not right. Our wishes and concerns were not accounted and doors of Gehlot were shut on us,” said the worker.
The workers were unambiguously claimed that leaders like Pukhraj Parashar, who was the chairman of the public grievances committee and Gehlots’ OSDs including Devaram Saini and Mahipal Bhardwaj, emerged as a wall between Gehlot and workers blocking the access of workers to Gehlot. One of the workers Kalpesh Singhvi said that the workers are the foot soldiers of a party and they deserve respect, needed to be heard and discussed with.
“But the leaders did not listen to them. Nobody asked that why the workers did not turn up in the meeting or in the office or in campaigning,” he pointed. Chairman of Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights Sangeeta Beniwal stressed the need to look into the reasons of this negligence of the party workers. “We need to analyse the reasons of loss. Our workers did not get what they deserved. So, we need to see why our workers turned away,” opined Beniwal.