State Congress President Nirmal Khatri is all set to face fresh resentment within the Party particularly from senior leaders as he failed to adjust the supporters of many of his colleagues in the State level Commiittee, ready to be announced within couple of days.
With Congress high command already handed over the Committee to State president, the first glimpse of differences galore on Thursday when a senior Congress leader, who also remained state president, registered protest during meeting of senior leaders here at Party state office. Interestingly, one of the colleague of Khatri tried to hush up the differences between the two leaders claiming it be caused over seating arrangements during the meeting, but he clarified that there in no intention to hurt anyone but the said leader was given last seat due to later arrival in the meeting. However, the former president took no time to reach house of a former union minister, known to be an arch rival of Nirmal Khatri to air `protest’.
Sources also said that this former state president is more annoyed after Khatri avoided to adjust the said leader’s supporters in Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, reportedly as it was cut down to more than
half of it’s size, earlier sent to High Command for clearance. Sources further said that not only the above leader, but most to former union ministers, Member of Parliaments, are also annoyed with Khatri over not adjusting their close aides in the Committee.
A senior leader of the Congress who revealed that the Committee is already cleared by the High Command, claimed that since the former ministers and MPs as well as other senior leaders are aware of the Khatri’s move to keep their supporters away from the State Committee, so they tried to register their protest by remaining absent from the meeting of top think tanks of the Congress, called by Khatri on direction of general secretary of All India Congress Committee (AICC) Madhusudan Mistri, here on Thursday morning.
It may be mentioned that most of this leaders attended the previous meeting but on Thursday, except for one former Union Minister and a single former MP, leaving Nirmal Khatri, no one attended the meeting. Besides, out of three Rajya Sabha MPs from UP, Pramod Tewari, Sanjay Singh and Pl Punia, only Sanjay Singh, was present during the meeting, pointing towards the differences with the Party. ``The differences between the senior leaders and Nirmal Khatri, is not new but the resentment started over the way in which the state president intentionally avoided to give charge of district or city unit of the Party to their supporters”, reacted a former MlA while commenting on growing differences between senior leaders.
``Every senior leader had some close supporters who helped them to connect with the masses and if such supporters were not kept in the Organisation, then under what system that leader works for the Party, at least in his or her constituency”, pointed the said former MlA adding that Khatri should explain that if his supporters were kept away from the Organisation in his constituency `Faizabad’, than how he
could work or take their support to strengthen the Party. ``Under such circumstances, Khatri should remain ready to face the ire of senior leaders once the Committee would be made official”, asserted the
leader while alerting State president.