Mehboob Ali Quaiser

Patna, March 5: The removal of Mehboob Ali Quaiser from the Bihar Congress president’s post appears imminent with the party high command virtually overhauling its edifice in the state in the aftermath of its worst-ever Assembly poll defeat last year.

“In all likelihood, All India Congress Committee (AICC) will change Quaiser too after changing Mukul Wasnik and Sagar Raika as its in-charge of the state affairs,” said a senior party leader.

His speculation does not appear too wide off the mark in view of the fact the AICC has also dropped Ashok Ram, a former Congress legislature party leader, from the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and has appointed Shakeel Ahmad — the new in-charge of the poll-bound Bengal — in the party’s highest political body.

The party high command made the soft spoken and suave Quaiser, who is also the son of Congress veteran Choudhary Salauddin, the president of Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee ahead of the Assembly elections in an obvious bid to improve its electoral performance.

But the Congress suffered its worst-ever defeat in the state; its tally dropped to four MLAs from the earlier nine in the Assembly. A large section of party leaders feel that Quaiser has lost the moral authority to rejuvenate the party.

Quaiser, true to his gentleman’s image, had offered to resign from the party post along with Wasnik, taking the moral responsibility of the defeat after the Assembly poll results were announced.

“The high command has appointed Guruchail Singh Charak (J&K) and Praveen Rastrapal (Gujarat) as the AICC in-charge and secretary in-charge of Bihar affairs. In all likelihood, the high command will change Quaiser too,” a senior leader said.

Rastrapal told The Telegraph over the phone: “We have to begin afresh and work hard in Bihar to rejuvenate the party structure. We have to do something creative and innovative to find our foothold in the state.”

Rastrapal, however, said the situations in Bihar and Bengal are totally different. “While the party is supposed to fine-tune its electoral strategy in the election-bound Bengal, it has sufficient time to build political infrastructure in Bihar. I will first meet the leaders to decide what we should do to infuse new life into our Bihar units.”

The Congress, which was against an alliance with the RJD and the LJP ahead of the Assembly polls, has however been by and large silent on Lalu Prasad in the past three months after Nitish Kumar returned to power with a thumping majority.

There are also speculations that the party might adopt a “softer posture” on the RJD. The appointment of Sadanand Singh — known for his proximity to Lalu Prasad — as the new Congress legislature party leader has fuelled the speculation.

Bihar Congress media chairman Premchand Mishra said that the party must come out from the state of “shock and demoralisation” and work hard to rejuvenate itself. “There is no space for infighting and indiscipline in the party now. With polls still far away, we have got enough time to rebuild the party,” he said, welcoming Charak and Rastrapal as the new in-charge of Bihar affairs.

The party leaders hope that the two leaders, particularly Rastrapal, will do well in Bihar given their rich political experience. Rastrapal has been the AICC in-charge of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh and Maharastra too.

“I hope my experience of working in Uttar Pradesh will come handy in the context of Bihar for the Congress here faces a situation almost similar to UP,” Rastrapal said.