Quaiser’s distracters find fault in

Whatever the state Congress president Mehboob Ali Quaiser does, his distracters dislike. When Quaiser announced to organise the Nirman Rally of the party at SK Memorial Hall, his critics said he was ignorant about the venues of rallies and meetings. This state president does not know the difference between a meeting and a rally. The rallies are held in the open and not in a hall,' a senior Congress leader said, stressing that the function was being organised according to the direction of the All India Congress Committee to all the state units of the party to combat the charges of corruption made by the Opposition parties and the civil society against the Union government. It would be the first public function of the party after its humiliating defeat in the Assembly polls. “But the Congress has not held any major rally in Patna for over a decade. Why blame Quaiser? He has been around for less than a year,” said another Congress leader, insisting that the blame of the debacle was unjustifiably being dumped on Quasier.

Speaker silent

Former Speaker Sadanand Singh is unusually silent these days. His political pponents have charged him with going soft on hief minister Nitish Kumar by not uttering a word against his regime. “It is natural for him to remain silent. The hearing for his bail would come up soon in the high court. He was enied parole by the lower court,” a senior ongressman said, ointing out that the state vigilance bureau had chargesheeted the former speaker for allegedly aking illegal ppointments during his tenure. When the chargesheet was filed, Sadanand had charged itish with practising olitical vendetta. But e went into silent mode thereafter.

Missing teak

The branches of a chopped teak tree lying on the campus of an pscale club in Patna isappeared mysteriously. A senior government officer was accused of emoving it. The officer reportedly told the overning body members that his employees did it without his knowledge and assured them that he would initiate action against them. “However, days have passed and there is still no sign of the stolen teak wood. The other members have emained silent because they fear that it will efame their club,” aid a member of the club.

Power and poor

After the hopes of the inclusion of Lalu Prasad in the Union ministry evaporated on Tuesday, his state party leaders tried to cheer him up by resolving to fight under his leadership for the return of Garibo Ka Raj (regime of the poor). The party even finalised October 11 this year as the day for Patna March - the first step towards rejuvenating the RJD after the Assembly poll debacle. The NDA leaders are amused. “The RJD always uses the word garib (poor) and raj (power) together. During the height of power, Lalu organised Garib Maharally as a show of power. He appears to be always in the quest of power through the poor. But the poor have realised that he has been fooling them,” a JD(U) MP said.