The Hindu : Congress claims membership of 31 lakh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 09, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

Congress claims membership of 31 lakh

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Jan. 8. Karnataka has a highly politicised population, if one goes by the claims of the Congress about its membership.

A meeting of the office-bearers of the PCC held here today put the number of primary members enrolled by the party at 31,08,450. Going by the statistics provided by the party, one in every 12 eligible voters in Karnataka is a Congress worker. Considering the similar claims made by other political parties, the number of politicians in the State's population might cross 60 lakh.

It is another thing that there is always criticism of enrolment of bogus members by what are called the active members of the Congress. The KPCC puts the number of active members at 1,24,338. A member has to enrol 25 primary members to become an active member. On paper, the Congress has an impregnable vote bank of 31 lakh members and eligible voters in their families which might exceed one crore.

Today's meeting was presided over by the senior vice-president, H.Hanumanthappa, in the absence of the president, Allum Veerabhadrappa. According to the statistics regarding membership provided by the PCC, the Bangalore City District has enrolled 3,42,825 primary members. The lowest enrolment was by the Gulbarga City District Committee 22,275.

An important decision taken by the meeting was to form party committees at the gram panchayat level. At present, the taluk committees are the lowest in the party hierarchy.

Speaking to presspersons after the meeting, the leadership took the stand that all was well with the party and it was unaware of any discontent among the rank and file. Mr. Hanumanthappa and the other leaders denied any knowledge of the AICC deciding to send some of its leaders to the State to review the working of the Government and the implementation of the promises made in the manifesto.

About the hunger strike staged by some of the disgruntled party workers in front of the Congress Bhavan on Tuesday, Mr. Hanumanthappa took the stand that they were unaware of their grievances. However, a memorandum submitted by the protestors had been forwarded to the AICC.

Mr. Hanumanthappa replied in a similar vein on the strong letter addressed by the party MP, C.K.Jaffer Sharief, to the AICC President, Sonia Gandhi. He was unaware of it. It was better the question was addressed to Mr. Sharief. The AICC had not sounded the PCC about the letter, he claimed.

About the membership drive, the Congress leaders said that their target was 51 lakh primary members.

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