The anger among the Bihar Congressmen exploded against the present State leadership of the party and nothing could be a better place than its iconic headquarters Sadaquat Ashram here on Tuesday when the warring factions came to blows. The incident occurred when the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) president Ashok Chaudhary and other leaders were enjoying song and dance organised to mark Holi Milan.
Outside the campus the two factions indulged in ‘lath mar’ Holi while raising slogans for and against Chaudhary. The bone of contention was overhauling of the various committees which saw omission of many senior leaders and entry of the people who came from other parties.
The reorganisation of the utterly disorganised party has brought the internal bickering to fore in an ugly shape. “This is the first time that such an ugly incident of clashes and blows happened at the party office,” said senior Congress leader Umakant Singh and urged the high command to take notice of the gross indiscipline in the party and take stern action against the people responsible for that. He warned, “If the high command fails to take action and check the revolt like situation, more such incidents may take place across the State due to high resentment among the genuine Congressmen.”
The jumbo list of office bearers including 15 vice presidents, 25 general secretaries, 76 secretaries, 43 organising secretaries, 12 spokesmen, 40 DCC presidents, 77 members of executive committees and 17 special invitees was released on February 28 after approval by AICC president Sonia Gandhi. The list was prepared ‘unilaterally’ by PCC president Chaudhary and recommended by AICC general secretary and Bihar incharge C P Joshi.
Interestingly, the previous committees and office bearers, mostly elected, had been dissolved by Chaudhary in November and now he has nominated the new functionaries which, Congress sources said, is against the constitution of the party.