With first session of the legislative Council begins with the joint session of both the Houses on Monday, confusion still prevails that who holds the post of leader of the Congress in the Council.
Interestingly, while name of Dinesh Singh, who led the party in the council after retirement of Naseeb Pathan, was projected by the Party as their leader but confusion prevailed as no one is ready to come on record, particularly after finding that high command is not happy with Dinesh Singh. In absence of state president Raj Babbar, a senior leader in the Party even questioned that how Dinesh could be named as leader of the Party in the council when he was facing disciplinary enquiry and was already suspended from the Party. He said that till the enquiry against Dinesh Singh will not be finalised, till then, Dipak Singh, the lone other Congress MlC besides Dinesh Singh, will lead the Party in the Upper House, the leader said.
It may be mentioned here that after the Rae Bareli unit of the Congress had issued suspension letter of sitting MlC Dinesh Pratap Singh from the Party about two months back, the disciplinary committee of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee also made a surprise and issued a show cause notice to the leader seeking his reply on the issue. ``It came to my knowledge that you assaulted general secretary of Rae Bareli Congress unit Manoj Kumar Paswan at his residence in Newajganj (Rae Bareli)and also kidnapped some dedicated members of Congress. You also hold a press conference through which you made baseless charges and used derogatory remarks against the local Member of Parliament’s representative in Rae Bareli”, charged UPCC disciplinary committee incharge Ram Krishna Dwivedi on Congress MlA Dinesh Pratap Singh, in his notice issued to Singh seeking his reply. ``When all the Congressmen should unite and fight collective to revive the Party, your (Singh) act increased infighting within the Party which is damaging for the Congress. You are a MlA and a responsible leader of the Party still you went against the Party line and involved in anti-Party activities so you should reply to the above charges within five days”, Dwivedi directed to Singh in his notice served to the MlC. Earlier, the Rae Bareli district Congress president VK Shukla announced suspension of Dinesh Pratap Singh, who was among the two MlCs of the Party, with immediate effect two months back. Shukla told reporters that the MlC was suspended for his derogatory statement against the party workers and against K l Sharma, representative of Congress president Sonia Gandhi from her Rae Bareli lok Sabha seat.
Sources in the Party confirmed that there were reports that Dinesh Pratap Singh, who won the election from the local bodies, was set to join the BJP. He hold a press conference in Rae Bareli during which he abused the Party leaders and workers. However another leader said that Dinesh was upset with the entry of Aditi Singh, daughter of his arch rival, Thakur leader Akhilesh Singh, into the Congress fold in Rae Bareli. Aditi also contested on Rae Bareli Sadar seat and won with huge margin. Interestingly, since Aditi’s entry, both Dinesh and Akhilesh Singh were trying to score over each other which is damaging the Party in it’s President Sonia Gandhi’s own Parliamentary constituency.
Till now the fate of Dinesh Singh in the Congress hangs in balance and all senior leaders were waiting for further directions either from Sonia or Priyanka to decide on the issue. Till then, sources said that no one will come forward to clear the doubt over who will lead the Party is the legislative Council.