Guwahati, April 26: The ongoing panchayati raj convention would have an impact on the electorate and could enhance the Congress’ prospects in the parliamentary polls, CWC member Mani Shankar Aiyar said here today.

Aiyar was here to address the panchayati raj convention organised by the Assam PCC. He said the Tarun Gogoi government has given life to Assam’s panchayati raj institutions in the past two years after it came to power.

“This convention is not aimed at the Lok Sabha elections. But its impact may be seen later during the polls,” said Aiyar.

He added that the Congress took the convention seriously as the year 2003 marks the 60th birth anniversary of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

“We look at it as a memorial since Rajiv Gandhi brought the constitutional amendment on panchayati raj,” he explained.

The CWC member said AICC president Sonia Gandhi has already constituted a team led by Manmohan Singh to study the possible issues for the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Though nothing has been finalised, Aiyar said the states where the Congress is now in power would be asked to inform the AICC on their achievements to fight the anti-incumbency factor.

“For those states which are not under Congress rule, we will try to find issues where those governments have failed,” he said.

Aiyar, however, gave a clean chit to Assam rural development minister Ripun Bora, despite the recent charges of corruption in the panchayati raj institutions.

Saying that the Congress government here was taking up various measures to prevent corruption while implementing development programmes, Aiyar praised Bora for activating the panchayati raj institutions and completing the mapping of its activities.

He said Karnataka, Kerala and Assam were the only states to have completed activity mapping of panchayati raj institutions.

But he felt that Assam has achieved its target much faster than the other two states as panchayati raj institutions had not existed two years ago.

“Two years ago, the Asom Gana Parishad government was distributing funds for rural development while sitting in Guwahati. Now we have engaged at least 25,000 elected representatives in distributing funds to the people,” said Aiyar.

He said it was natural that there would be some corruption in the process as the whole country cannot be rid of this disease.

The CWC member assured the gathering that the Congress government would go all out to curb corruption in local bodies.

Assam PCC president Pawan Singh Ghatowar said the government has already received complaints on corruption and was taking corrective measures. He said even the elected representatives during the convention openly voiced their concern over the issue.

“The Congress has the patience to listen to the complaints. But during the AGP’s tenure, it was chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and rural development minister Sahidul Alam Choudhury who siphoned off all the funds,” Ghatowar added.