Cat fight: Nar Bahadur Bhandari (top) and KN Upreti

Gangtok, Sept. 28: Internecine feud in the Sikkim Congress took an amusing turn today with the caretaker president of the party in the state, Nar Bahadur Bhandari, being asked to “retire honourably” by K.N. Upreti, the number two in the organisation.

“We advise Bhandari, who is getting older, to refrain from playing dirty politics, wooing innocent and simple Congress members with his money power and indulging in fraudulent practices, degrading his own honour and dignity,” said an angry Upreti, who is also the vice-president of the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee.

Upreti said Bhandari — now 71 — should step down and preserve his dignity and stature as a “fairly good leader and administrator”.

Bhandari claims that he is the rightful president of the SPCC as he was the only person to have filed his nomination for the post during the election process that ended on September 13. Following that, Upreti had successfully lobbied the AICC to stall the election process and instead nominate somebody else for the post of president.

Upreti and his camp told the high command that the SPCC president be nominated by the central leadership as elections would divide the party vertically.

Bhandari responded to the postponement of the elections as irrelevant and affirmed that he stood elected as the SPCC president unopposed.

“Bhandari’s stand is baseless as the AICC has declared his self-professed unopposed election as null and void, and this decision has been faxed to us by the returning officer appointed by the AICC, Zuber Khan,” said Upreti.

Political observers feel that the exchange of allegations and counter-allegations between Bhandari and Upreti is harming the reputation of the Congress in Sikkim. “The delay of the Congress high command in settling the issue is also affecting the confidence of the party workers,” said an observer.

“By filing his nomination for the SPCC president’s post, Bhandari wants to indicate that he wants to remain in active politics, at least till the next Assembly polls. Even if Bhandari is disowned by the Congress as its state president, he could float a party because he still believes that he has a considerable vote bank in the state,” said another observer.

The observers also pointed out that 60-year-old Upreti, too, should not be underestimated as he had been in active politics for 35 years and had been MLA for 20 years. When Bhandari was the chief minister, Upreti was known as the second man in the state cabinet. “Upreti now feels that Bhandari is to blame for the Congress’s status in Sikkim and he should take over. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Upreti had polled around 75,000 votes,” said an observer.