Published 08:24 IST, November 14th 2020
Congress chooses Bhagalpur MLA Ajeet Sharma as Bihar Legislative party leader amid ruckus
Arriving at a consensus amid massive ruckus in the meeting, the Bihar Congress chose Bhagalpur MLA Ajeet Sharma as the leader of its legislature party.
Dissenting voices have once again risen in Congress after the poll debacle in Bihar, and senior leader & Chattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel was para dropped in Patna to keep the flock together. Even as Baghel tried to assuage the concerns of the state leaders, on Friday, ANI reported that Congress MLA Vijay Shankar Dubey's supporters clashed with Congress MLAs Siddarth resulting in a physical confrontation and slurs being used. Moreover, two Congress MLAs - Manihati's Manohar Kumar and Araria MLA Aabid-ur-Rehman boycotted the meeting to express their anger against the Central leadership. However, arriving at a consensus, the Bihar Congress chose Bhagalpur MLA Ajeet Sharma as the leader of its legislature party.
The announcement made by Baghel and chairman of the party's screening committee Avinash Pande also said that Kasba MLA Afaque Alam has been made the deputy leader of the CLP and Aurangabad MLA Anand Shankar Singh has been made the treasurer.
In Bihar Assembly elections 2020, Congress was able to win only 19 out of the 70 seats it contested as a part of seat-sharing with the RJD and the left parties in Mahagathbandhan. While CPIM-L has made a comeback in Bihar with 12 seats, Tejashwi Yadav - the CM face of Mahagathbandhan fell short of forming the government despite RJD becoming the single largest party and many have blamed it on Congress' poor performance.
On Thursday, Tariq Anwar, general secretary of Congress, said that the party should accept the truth and introspect about their loss. However, he also blamed the AIMIM for helping BJP to win the polls. Similarly, MP Adhir Ranjan Choudhary called AIMIM a B team of the BJP drawing the ire of Hyderabad MP & AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi. Congress MP PL Punia and P Chidambaram have also backed Anwar's opinion and said that a review should happen on the bad performance of the party so that such a situation doesn't arrive in the next elections.
Chaos had ensued in the Congress party during seat allotment as well, and the Central leadership of the party had removed its own state chief from the poll panel. After the tickets were given in the first phase of Bihar polls, former state chiefs Chandna Bagchi and Anil Sharma accused AICC in-charge Shaktisinh Gohil, BPCC president Madan Mohan Jha and BPCC campaign committee chairman Akhilesh Prasad Singh of favouring ‘tainted and incompetent’ leaders.
Congress president saga
Congress has been in a leadership dilemma since Rahul Gandhi quit as party chief in the post-Lok Sabha 2019 debacle. This led to a barrage of resignations from posts like Milind Deora, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Priyanka Chaturvedi and many more. Amidst a lot of turmoil with Priyanka Vadra also being considered, Congress finally went back to their safe option and named Sonia Gandhi as its interim chief. Recently, her tenure was again extended after 23 leaders sought structural changes in the party, but were shut down by the party's 'Core committee'. Most leaders have time and again implored the 50-year-old Rahul Gandhi to take back the reins of the party, but he has not budged.
Updated 09:45 IST, November 14th 2020