The BJP central leadership was on Tuesday forced to interfere to resolve crisis in the State BJP after the rift in the party over reorganisation of the State working committee appeared wider and protests continued on the second day after the new team was announced by State BJP chief Tala Marandi. The party is also worried with a section of tribal leaders’ stand over the proposed changes in the CNT and SPT Acts.
While a couple of senior leaders declined taking new responsibilities on Tuesday, Chief Minister Raghubar Das and Marandi rushed to Delhi after getting a call from State in-charge TS Rawat.
Das attended a ‘crisis management’ meeting called at General Secretary (Org.) Ram lal’s house with State In-charge TS Rawat in Delhi on Tuesday, while Marandi, who is constantly ‘unreachable’ after the Sunday reshuffle, left for Delhi in the evening to meet senior leaders. The party seniors have taken a serious note of the events in Ranchi and would take a ‘stern’ step in all eventuality, hinted insiders in the State BJP.
“The State unit chief is not here. He is scheduled to reach late evening. So, we didn’t have any meeting today. A meeting will take place tomorrow with the party president (Amit Shah) only after that we would take any decision,” said Rawat over phone from Delhi. Sources also confined that the meeting did not yield anything substantial and the leaders talked about sorting out the matter in consultation with regional leaders after the direction of Shah.
Meanwhile, veteran leader Yashwant Sinha met party workers, who continued hunger strike on second day outside the State BJP headquarters demanding restructuring of the working committee and constituting it afresh. In the meeting, Sinha said that the voice of the workers will be heard. He also declined to take the new post of a permanent invitee member. “The party runs with workers, not by anyone’s whims and fancies. Party workers should not be ignored. While forming the team a regional balance must be maintained, which I found missing when I had a glance at the list. I will talk to the central leaders about the issue,” said Sinha.
Senior leader Ganesh Mishra also quit from State Training Head post on Tuesday. Mishra is the fifth person after Meera Munda, Aditya Sahu, Ajay Nath Shahdeo and Yashwant Sinha who declined accepting the new roles assigned to them. The new team has more than 80 per cent new members, said party workers.
New party spokesperson Umashankar Kedia said that there was no official stand of the party on the issue. “Everyone has the right to voice one’s opinion. I am not aware what is going on at the State level. It’s only the central leadership that will call the shots,” said Kedia.