With resentment against the incumbent Congress president Sukhdeo Bhagat is growing every passing day, indications coming in from the party’s top management suggest that his ouster from the helm is inevitable.
Reportedly the rebel faction led by Congress Jamtara MlA Irfan Ansari coupled with Barhi legislator Manoj Kumar Yadav had received a patient listening during the recently concluded working committee meeting of the newly constituted Pradesh Congress Committee and, in return, has got some concrete assurances from the leaders representing Delhi here.
“His removal is sure from the post of PCC president. We have presented considerable arguments before BK Hariprasad during the meeting in the support of our point of view and he has told us to maintain our calm for a while. The party has been on slippery slop since Sukhdeo Bhagat’s arrival at the helm. Tribal and minority were the vote bank of the Congress in the State which have jettisoned us. His leaving the post is the only way to save the party,” said Irfan Ansari.
He also added that taking serious note of the “alarming situation” hitting the party Hariprasad had assured them for a face to face meeting with Congress national vice-president Rahul Gandhi anytime after Dewali where the faction would reiterate their point of view in support of their demands that also include setting up a complete new PCC with faces who are able to broaden party’s base in Jharkhand.
Some insiders in the party in Delhi while confirming to the development having taken place in the State stated that Sukhdeo Bhagat’s position as PCC chief was shaken. “Resentment is there and some senior leaders of Jharkhand are gunning for his head. Even the general secretary in-charge (BK Hariprasad in this case), who plays a crucial role on such matters, is not backing him fully. In this situation his continuation as PCC president is looking a dream short lived,” said a close confident of party affairs at AICC.
Notably a 15-member delegation of the newly formed team is in Delhi to present its point of view before Rahul Gandhi most likely on Wednesday that also include Bhagat who has been reinstated as president only couple of weeks ago. The team would present its position on the hiccups, including allegations as heinous as corruption and sexual slur leveled by the rebel MlAs against the ‘Team Bhagat’ and also why the party is unable to hold its grounds during the last Assembly polls.
Nevertheless the source added that seldom the party gives on such complaints a knee-jerk reaction and the replacement would take its own time. “It is believed that such reaction weakens the party even further. Most likely the decision would be taken after the Assembly polls lined up are over. It would also depend on finding his able replacement and one among those may be Subodh Kant Sahay,” he added.
Sahay’s camp in all this is quite active and busy in carrying positive feedbacks to Delhi mentioning his revitalised activism in the State, including the ongoing Barkagaon agitation. Incidentally, the party is being represented there and other similar protests, relating to land acquisition and displacement issues taken place in Jharkhand in recent times, singlehandedly by the former Union Minister, who, the Bhagat camp believes firmly, is behind the entire brouhaha.