State Congress' internal bickering once again came out in the open on Thursday with the condolence meet organised to pay tributes to party leaders who died in Darbha Maoist attack, turning into a hot political debate with opposite factions trying to take on adversaries through indirect accusations.
Former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi firing a salvo in political parlance against former Chief Minister and All India Congress Committee General Secretary Digvijay Singh, belonging to Raghogarh, said no person coming from Fatehgarh or Pratapgarh can do good to Chhattisgarh.
Only person or leader belonging to Chhattisgarh alone can take the state forward. He said that Congress leaders of Chhattisgarh are able to take the mantle ahead from where late CGPCC chief Nand Kumar Patel left it adding that neither the Congress Party nor he himself was hungry of power.
Jogi said he has held many posts in his life and now has no hunger for any post. But the state unit of Congress would seek power in 2013 and it would come to the party as well even if party leaders and workers would have to face bullets in their chests and baton on their back. Every worker of the party would be ready for if they don't want to let Patel's martyrdom go in vain. He said if all leaders work together, the power will come without any doubt. leaders of Chhattisgarh are able to take the mantle of the party as well as the state. He himself will remain here and work here. Working for the betterment of party as well as state keeping the martyrdom of Patel will be the real tribute to the martyrs, he added.
Replying to Jogi's barbs in the same vein, Digvijay Singh said Chhattisgarh has given enough importance to non-Chhattisgarhi people as well. This is the real trait of this state.
In his tributes to Darbha martyrs including CGPCC president Nand Kumar Patel, Mahendra Karma and Uday Mudliyar, Singh said Congress always fought for ideals. When there were Congress governments in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh we worked for the betterment of poor as well as villages and late Patel too never missed to express his views on these issues. He spend an unblemished life. He encouraged the moral of Congress workers visiting every corner of the state and raised his voice against the BJP misrule. His loss will nenver be fulfilled in the party. Former leader of opposition Mahendra Karma too was a fearless leader who had good hold over tribal community for the betterment of whom he fought till his last breathe.
Mudliyar too came here from Tamil Nadu and served people of Chhattisgarh till his end without caring for his house and family making Rajnandgaon his workplace, Singh added.
Expressing his dismay at the killing of Dinesh Patel Singh said he has no clue why Maoists killed him. He called on party workers to work unitedly keeping Patel's martyrdom in mind to bring Congress back to power in state for which Patel worked till his death.