Patna: A section of Bihar Congress leaders have taken umbrage at Lalu Prasad's comment on infighting in the party, calling it an attempt to meddle in party affairs by an outsider.
A bunch of Congress leaders assembled at a meeting held at Patliputra Colony on Sunday and termed the RJD chief's remarks an insult and a slap on the face of the party by a person whom many hold responsible for decimating the Congress in the state between 1990 and 2005.
Lalu, while, attending as chief guest the function to celebrate the first chief minister of Bihar Sri Krishna Sinha's 130th birth anniversary on Saturday, had said: "It is unfortunate that the moment anybody is made state Congress president, a battle starts to remove him. This should be stopped."
The event was organised by the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) and the Dr Sri Krishna Singh Jayanti Samaroh Samiti headed by Congress leader and former Union minister Akhilesh Prasad Singh, one of the contenders for the post of BPCC president after Ashok Choudhary was shown the door last month.
Senior Congress leaders such as former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Shakeel Ahmad, former Union ministers L.P. Shahi and K.K. Tiwari, former governor Nikhil Kumar, BPCC working president Kaukab Quadri were present on the dais when Lalu took potshots at their party.
"The comment by Lalu was most unwarranted, especially when he was chief guest at our function and some of the top leaders of our party were present," said AICC member Amarendra Singh, who compèred the event.
"He has no business to meddle in the internal affairs of our party. The decision on who is to be made state president or who is to be removed rests with the party high command," Amarendra added.
Another section of Congress leaders felt Lalu had spoken the truth.
"Lalu ji has seen the Congress very closely and has observed that whenever any new state president comes, others start attacking and conspiring to remove him. This is being observed about me too," said Quadri.
Senior leader and former MLA Harkhu Jha agreed with the Bihar Congress working president.
"Lalu is right now indispensable for the Congress in Bihar if it wants to counter the BJP-led NDA, and he knows it. Our party is not powerful enough to go solo in the state and will have to team up with the RJD and other secular parties to stem the BJP," Harkhu added.
Old-timers of the Congress, who spoke under cover of anonymity, said opposition to newly elected state party presidents from other senior leaders has been a trend since 2003 when Ramjatan Sinha was made the BPCC president.
They, however, added that the infighting never came to fore earlier because senior leaders like LP Shahi, Baliram Bhagat, Radhanandan Jha, Lahtan Chaudhary and others would intervene and ensure the infighting did not blow up and fester.
