Whose Website Is It Anyway?

Two Congress websites go down, with a disgruntled ex-party member taking credit for it. We talk to the man responsible to find out why.

WrittenBy:Kartik Nijhawan
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“Apni Janakpuri, Apna Sanjey Puri” reads the text on Sanjey Puri’s business card, printed when Puri was still a Congress worker. Things have changed since – Puri quit the Congress on January 19, 2015, and has left senior Congress leaders embarrassed by taking down both the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) website as well as the online portal of its national mouthpiece, Sandesh.

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With the Delhi polls fast approaching, the Congress, which has already struggled to gain momentum, suffered further ridicule when the domains – www.congresssandesh.in and www.dpcc.co.in – which were registered by Puri in his name; the former in 2001 and the latter in 2008, were taken down. “In 2001, I was given the responsibility to build and manage the website of Sandesh and in 2008, the website of the state Congress”, said Puri. He continues, “But I quit because it is the fourth time I was denied a ticket. Every time I ask for a ticket I’m told to try next time.”

Sanjey claims he met Sonia Gandhi and explained his situation to her but even she told him the same thing, “Try next time”.

Now both the websites carry messages apologising for the sites being down. But even here Puri has taken the opportunity to make it clear that he is no longer a member of the Congress party. The DPCC website has a message which reads:
This site with doman name DPCC.CO.IN was designed, developed and maintained by Shri Sanjay Puri since 2008 (Member Congress Campaign Committee, DPCC, 2015) He withdraws the services after the resignation from his primary membership of Indian National Congress on 19th January, 2015.
While the word ‘domain’ is misspelled, we’ll forgive it as Puri’s own name is spelled incorrectly. A similar message adorns the landing page of Sandesh.

Puri told Newslaundry that he joined the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in 1984 after having been a member of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI). He has been a member of the Municipal Corporation from 2002 to 2007. According to Puri he would still be a member of the Municipal Corporation had it not been for foul play. “I was defeated by cheating in the counting in the 2012 Municipal Elections. I even filed a case in the District court where the matter is pending”, a visibly upset Puri told us.

Many Congress workers have resigned along with Puri. One of them, Neena Kapoor, who is a teacher by profession and has also been a member of the Municipal Corporation, claims that she still gets calls from the Congress to tell her about her duties in the area despite having resigned a while ago. Confusion seems to be reigning in the Congress ranks.

PC Chacko, AICC-in-charge of Delhi, still seems to be living in denial. He told the Indian Express, “Sanjey will work for the party and he has not resigned.” On the other hand, DPCC President Arvinder Singh Lovely’s personal assistant, Rajiv Sharma told Newslaundry, “Sanjey apne ghar ki koi website chalaa raha tha, usne band kardi toh humko koi farak nai padta. Humaari website chal rahi hai.” (Sanjey was running this website on his own. It doesn’t bother us even if he has shut down.)

This statement makes it seem like the Congress is trying to distance itself from the now-defunct websites, or one of them at least.

Amidst the controversy over the websites, the Delhi Congress’ official twitter handle was busy refuting Puri’s clams. One of the tweets claimed that their official website is www.delhipcc.in  and that it was in working order.

A quick check revealed that not only was the website mentioned up and running, but that it has been live since July, 2014, making it seem like Puri’s claims, at least on the DPCC website front, are the attempts of a disgruntled ex-Congress worker. Newslaundry attempted to contact the new website’s administrator, Radhika Khera, but she was unavailable for comment.

The Congress hasn’t, as of yet, tried to explain away the Sandesh domain being disabled.

Despite his exit from the Congress, Puri still hasn’t given up on his political ambitions. Previously unable to manage a ticket from the Congress, Puri is now fighting assembly elections independently from the Janakpuri constituency next month.

Interestingly, he will be pitted against BJP leader Jagdish Mukhi and Mukhi’s son-in-law, Suresh Kumar, from the Congress. Puri alleges that this arrangement was pre-planned to ensure Mukhi wins his seat.

“In the last assembly elections, in 2013, I was denied a ticket for a third time, but still I decided to extend my support to the Congress.” He continues, “Mukhi fielded my namesake as an independent to cut the Congress’ votes. Because people of Janakpuri know me, my namesake candidate managed to get 5000 votes.”

“If people of Janakpuri can give five thousand votes to my namesake without my promotion, why won’t they make me win if I contest elections?” said Puri.

There have been murmurs of late that talks were on between Puri and the Congress to hand over the websites, but Puri has exclusively refuted these claims to Newslaundry.

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