Cong appoints team to revamp Bihar unit

Patna, July 2: All India Congress Committee (AICC) has constituted a 20-member co-ordination committee for Bihar to keep an efficient synchronisation between the organisation and legislature party.

“The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi has approved the co-ordination committee for Bihar comprising a list of 20 names headed by the party’s Bihar affairs in-charge, Gulchain Singh Charak,” said Janardan Dwivedi, general secretary and MP.

The co-ordination would include Praveen Rashtrapal, who is AICC’s co-incharge and present Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) president Choudhary Mehboob Ali Quaiser. The list also comprises five former BPCC presidents, Sadanand Singh, Shakeel Ahmad, Chandan Bagchi, Ram Jatan Sharma and Anil Kumar Sharma. The two former Congress legislature party leaders Ashok Kumar and Vijay Shankar Dubey, have also found their names in the committee.

Apart from the BPCC presidents and Congress leaders, a host of other senior leaders such as Maulana Israrul Haque, Shyama Singh, Ram Deo Singh Rai, Awadhesh Kumar Singh, Sanjeev Prasad Tony, K.N. Pathak, K.R. Saba Anasari, H.P. Singh Kushwaha, Manorama Singh and R.R. Sahu have found their names on the list. A senior BPCC leader told The Telegraph: “This is a useless and meaningless committee basically meant to shunt the old warhorses who can’t work under the presidentship of a younger generation.”

Sources said that a look at the list gives an impression that the party has confined the roles of senior leaders to giving advice only for the smooth functioning of both organisation and the party legislature.

This means that those leaders who are on the list might not be considered for the post of BPCC president and that’s why some of the persons who are contenders for PCC president have got their names removed from the list. This could be an indication that the high command wants to hand over the BPCC leadership to a new face who might be from the younger generation, sources said. The party’s organisation polls are expected to be completed by August-end.

Sources added that the list is the same except for a few names such as Ashok Choudhary and Kalika Sharan Singh, who have not been named in the fresh list. This is not the first time that such a committee has been formed. Rather it was constituted as a way out to accommodate senior leaders of the party who preferred not to attend party functions and meetings during Anil Sharma’s tenure as BPCC president.

A few leaders of the state Congress have expressed their reservations over the list saying it did not represent the true picture of the party. “There is resentment among the workers as the leaders, who no longer remain a force nor devote time for the organisation, have got their names in the list and on the other hand senior leaders who work sincerely for the party have been ignored.”