Rift within the State unit of the Congress party has become evident after its humiliating defeat in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls. Soon after party’s State president Ajoy Kumar’s resignation on May 27, senior leaders and office-bearers in the party were found to be at loggerheads over his decision. The infighting, however, is now getting bad to worse with leaders hoping for a showdown prior to the upcoming assembly elections, party insiders said on Sunday.
While at least 10 district presidents of the party have jointly requested Kumar to withdraw his resignation, former Jharkhand Congress Pradesh Committee (JPCC) president Pradeep Balmuchu has openly held him responsible for the party’s debacle in the general elections here.
Balmuchu, however, is not the only senior party leader flaying Kumar for his alleged poor decisions. Former Godda MP Furqan Ansari on Saturday said that Kumar’s decision of resigning from the position of the state president showed the lack of will in him to work on addressing the damage that has been done. “You cannot run away. How is it a solution?” he asked.
Ansari, a former eight-time legislator, was one of the party’s probably picks for the Godda constituency this year. However, the party decided to give the seat to its Mahagathbandhan ally Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P). JVM-P’s Pradeep Yadav lost the Godda seat to Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) sitting MP Nishikant Dubey by a huge margin. “Selling the Congress party will not strengthen it. I don’t regret not getting an opportunity to contest the seat. I am upset because the Congress party lost a constituency where it had a huge vote bank,” Ansari said.
The Congress party contested seven of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand this year and played the role of a big brother in the grand alliance. However, it could manage to win only in Singhbhum constituency, where Geeta Koda defeated BJP state president and incumbent MP Laxman Gilua. The voters painted a similar picture for the Congress party across the country, compelling party’s national president Rahul Gandhi to tender his resignation.
Now, in Jharkhand, some leaders are expecting Kumar to accept his mistakes and rectify them, while many are standing in his support. A senior office bearer of the party said that his resignation has yet not been accepted by the party high command since Kumar is not the only State president to have tendered a resignation after the Lok Sabha defeat.
“At least four presidents of different states in India have tendered their resignations. Meanwhile, the party’s senior leadership is yet to take a call on Rahul Gandhi’s resignation. Any decision at this juncture will take time,” he said.
Meanwhile, a senior Congress party leader, who did not wish to be named, said that the infighting in the party was only caused by a few leaders who either did not get a ticket for the Lok Sabha polls or want to mount pressure on the party to get a ticket in the upcoming assembly elections. “Most of them (leaders) have a one point agenda. They are willing to support Ajoy Kumar only if they get a ticket for the upcoming Assembly elections,” he said.
Another office bearer from the state headquarters of the party said that it was important to sort out all the internal issues at the earliest and appoint a State president in Jharkhand since the state is set to go to polls by the end of this year, and preparing for the elections will require a lot of homework.