NEW DELHI: With Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ram Babu Sharma completing one year in office on Saturday, there is a general feeling among the cadres that despite the year witnessing an uneasy relationship between Mr. Sharma and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, he has been successful in restoring the party's supremacy and making its voice heard by its own Congress-led Government here.

Ever since Mr. Sharma took over the reins of the DPCC last year, he has been constantly scrutinising not only the performance of the Government but also implementation of the various policies and programmes of the party much to the dislike of the Chief Minister. The year also saw the infamous "walkout'' by the Chief Minister from the Executive Committee meeting of the party that led to a crisis of sorts for Ms. Dikshit which was ultimately resolved by the intervention of the Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

The cadres have been feeling elated that for once their voice was being heard by the Sheila Dikshit Government though through the DPCC president.

Interestingly, it is also for the first time in almost seven years of the Sheila Dikshit regime that the Chief Minister has been "forced'' to seek from the DPCC president the names of local Congress leaders and party workers for giving them representation in the governing bodies, hospital advisory committees and various boards and corporations functioning under the Delhi Government. Earlier, these lists were compiled in the Chief Minister's office without consulting any senior leader or member of the party or legislature.

Be it the issue of power and water crises or privatisation of the Delhi Jal Board, Mr. Sharma has never shied away from raising issues with the Government and seeking relief for the people. He also played a major role along with some other senior Congress leaders in ensuring a 10 per cent rollback in power tariffs by the Delhi Government in August this year.

"I have only been raising issues affecting the people at large. If the private companies are not working, then it is the duty of the party to ensure that the Government acts against them in the interest of the people. I have been extending full cooperation to the Delhi Government in working out various issues,'' Mr. Sharma remarked.

Thanking party president Sonia Gandhi for giving him such an important position, Mr. Sharma said the party was the first to implement the ethics and austerity code suggested by Ms. Gandhi.

Another major achievement of Mr. Sharma has been construction of the local DPCC head office at Rouse Avenue, also known as Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, in the record time of one year. This project has been lying in a limbo for the past many years, but Mr. Sharma took it upon himself to complete the project. The Government and the party have witnessed a clash over the issues of water privatisation, regularisation of industries functioning from non-conforming areas and also on reduction of kerosene oil quota for the poor.

"I am here to implement Ms. Gandhi's slogan of "Congress Ka Haath, Gharib Ke Saath'' and I will not hesitate to achieve this even if I have to take on my own Government in the public interest,'' he added.

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