Dissident Bihar Congress leaders carry out sit-in protest, party’s State woman’s wing president resigns

After facing poll debacle in the recently concluded Assembly elections, a group of Congress party leaders in Bihar sat on protest inside State party office at Sadaqat Ashram in Patna and raised slogans against senior party leaders. The dissident party leaders were, earlier, served show cause notices for their alleged anti-party activities. State woman wing president Sarwat Jahan Fatima resigned from her post in protest of denial of a ticket to contest the Assembly elections.

The protesting Congress party leaders were said to be angry over ticket distribution in the recently concluded Assembly elections for which results were announced on November 14. Under Opposition mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) the Congress party had contested 61 seats and won only six of them in the poll. In last 2020 Assembly elections, the party had contested on 70 seats and won 19 of them.

The Independent Purnea MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, though, tried to pacify the protesting Congress leaders and reason out with them while sitting on the floor of the party office. The protesting Congress leaders, however, refused to listen him and continued with their protest against him, as well as top State party leadership for “giving party tickets to wrong candidates in the poll”. Mr Yadav is said to be close to some top party leadership and his wife Ranjit Ranjan is party Rajya Sabha MP from Chhattisgarh. She was also a former Congress MP in Lok Sabha from Supaul parliamentary constituency of Bihar.

The protesting Congress party leaders were, earlier, issued show cause notices for their anti-party activities. However, they blamed State Congress president Rajesh Ram, party’s in-charge Krishna Allavaru, senior party leaders Akhilesh Singh, Shakil Ahmad Khan, Ajit Kumar Singh and others responsible for party’s “humiliating drubbing in the poll”. They raised slogans like “ticket thief, leave the seat” accusing top State party leadership for “selling” tickets to candidates to contest the poll.

Among the protesting leaders former party spokesperson Anand Madhav who is also among those served show-cause notice said, “I’ve been an old member of the party but the party leaders distributed tickets to those who were unlikely to win the poll. There are other irregularities too as the disciplinary committee comprises only three persons but it should have been a five-member committee”. Mr Madhav also alleged that “there has been serious charges of questionable loyalty of some party leaders to the party”.

Meanwhile, the State Woman’s president of the Congress party Sarwat Jahan Fatima resigned from her post on Friday protesting against “denial of party ticket to her and the show-cause notice issued against some dissident party leaders”. “I’ve been on the post for 28-months and trying to galvanize women in support of the Congress party with the promise that the party would work for their political empowerment but, when time came, only eight percent of the 61 candidates were given party tickets to contest the poll”, alleged Ms Fatima.