Amid the revolt-like situation in Bihar Congress against the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) president Ashok Chaudhary, a delegation of the State party leaders on Monday called on AICC chief Sonia Gandhi on the pretext of making suggestions for strengthening organisational structure and strategy for preparing for Assembly election scheduled to be held in October-November.
Recently, the Bihar unit of Congress, which is in a turmoil, had been in the news for not any good reason. The infighting-marred party is passing through a critical period with almost all the senior leaders including many former PCC presidents have come out openly against the present State leadership and only recently the anger exploded in open that too in the premises of Sadaquat Ashram, the party headquarters.
The Monday meeting of the 27 Bihar Congress leaders led by senior leader Prem Chandra Mishra is seen in this background. However, Mishra told The Pioneer that the focus of their meeting was to tell her about the state of affairs of the party in Bihar. “We gave her some suggestions how to reenergise the Congressmen as the Assembly election is nearing. We also told her about the ground realities,” said Mishra but refused to comment if they also complained against the PCC chief Chaudhary and demanded his removal.
It is to be noted that a memorandum against Chaudhary had been submitted to Sonia Gandhi a few months back which was signed by Congress legislature party leader Sadanand Singh and former presidents Ram Jatan Sinha and Anil Kumar Sharma and about two dozen senior leaders. The memorandum read like a charge-sheet against Chaudhary.
Refuting the charges, Chaudhary said the memorandum was submitted to the Madam about four months back and after that he was called and got green signal to constitute the party. “There are some people in the party who are perpetual dissidents and Madam is aware about this situation,” he said and added he faced no threat to his position.
The PCC president said that he was busy with party’s Kisan Mazdoor Nyaya Padyatra from Bodh Gaya to Patna in first phase and was aware that some Congressmen met Sonia in New Delhi on Monday. “There is nothing unusual in such meetings and many leaders from the State called on her recently. They have right to meet the party high command,” he said.
However, the reorganisation of the utterly disorganised party has brought the internal bickering to fore in an ugly shape when warring factions came to blows to show their anger over the removal of certain leaders from the district committees. “In the new set up, people coming from the RJD, JD(U), lJP, BSP and other parties have been given prominent position and the genuine party workers ignored. The situation has come to this passé that they are now expressing their anger and resentment in open. This is a very unfortunate situation for the party,” lamented Mishra, a former spokesperson.