The Congress party’s pilot exercise to empower the District Congress Committees (DCC) in Gujarat has drawn some criticism, but several leaders are also hopeful that the increased representation to communities, including Dalits, tribals, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), will give the state unit impetus to regain the ground it lost over the last three decades of the BJP’s dominance.
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Representation Debate Intensifies After Gujarat Congress DCC Appointments
A Muslim Congress leader, on condition of anonymity, said: “How can the party not appoint a single Muslim when the state has a 10% Muslim population? There are at least five districts where Muslims are more than 20%.”
Gujarat PCC secretary Iliyas Qureshi defended the decision to leave out Muslims, saying it was done on the suggestion of the party’s own leaders from the community. “Gujarat is a place where polarisation can help the BJP. Too many Muslims in the list would have meant that. And we didn’t want it to benefit the BJP,” Qureshi told The Indian Express.
While Muslims may feel left out, some other marginalised communities were given representation in the DCC list.
A total of 14 OBC leaders made the cut, while tribal and Dalit leaders got seven and four posts respectively.
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