Acrimony over distribution of party tickets for the Urban Local Body (ULB) elections took a violent turn on Monday when Congress workers clashed among themselves at the state party office. It is learnt that tempers frayed after the chairman of the disciplinary committee of the party Promod Kumar Singh scolded the senior party leader Rajendra Shah for openly airing his critical view on the selection of the candidates. Heated altercation followed as Shah too retaliated. Meanwhile, supporters of both Singh and Shah came face to face and heated words were exchanged.
In a fit of rage, Manvendra Singh, one of the supporters of Pramod Kumar Singh, reportedly slapped Mahanagar president of the party’s minority cell Tabi Kamar Khan, a loyalist of Shah. Thereafter, things turned tense as the fuming supporters of both the factions gathered at the party office.
Pramod Kumar Singh alleged that some workers had attempted to manhandle him. “This is very unfortunate as I am associated with Congress for a long time,” he said. The temper cooled down after Singh offered his apology to Tabi Kamar Khan on the intervention of the senior leaders.
The State Congress vice- president Surya Kant Dhasmana released the names of 100 candidates for the posts of councillors in the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) on Monday afternoon. The list was released after hectic parleys involving the senior leaders. Incidentally, Tuesday is the last date of filing of nomination papers.