Bihar Cong workers create ruckus before party s state in- charge

A group of Bihar Congress workers onTuesday hurled chairs, shoved each other and raised slogansagainst a senior state unit leader during a meeting attendedby the party's newly appointed in-charge Bhakta Charan Das.

The noisy scene was witnessed at the Congress stateheadquarters 'Sadaquat Ashram' here where a meeting of thefarmers cell of the state unit of the party was held.

The meet was marred by violent protests when a section ofthe state unit's farmers cell objected to state workingpresident Shyam Sunder Singh Dhiraj moderating the functionorganised by the party's kisan wing.

Das, who was on his maiden visit to Bihar after takingup the assignment, however, termed the troublemakers as''outsiders'' who wanted to disturb the meeting in which BiharCongress chief Madan Mohan Jha, Congress Legislature Lartyleader Ajit Sharma, Dhiraj and other senior leaders werepresent.

A section of party workers led by Raj Kumar Sharma,claiming to be the in-charge of Bihar Congress farmers' cell,objected to Dhiraj moderating the function.

Sharma alleged that Dhiraj wanted to control thefarmers' cell and did not allow him to speak on the occasion.

He also claimed that supporters of Dhiraj pushed himand tore his clothes.

This led to shouting of slogans, hurling of chairs andpushing and shoving among the party workers present there.

The party's Bihar in-charge later told reporters thatthe troublemakers were outsiders and had nothing to do withthe Congress.

''Some people wanted to disturb the farmers' cellmeeting. They were not Congress workers. They entered thevenue and wanted to speak. We got them removed from themeeting,'' said Das, a former union minister who is on athree-day visit to the state.

The ruckus followed another such incident that tookplace before Das during a meeting also held at Sadaqat Ashramheld on Monday.

Video clips of that meeting have gone viral on thesocial media in which local leaders can be seen hurling abusesand raising accusatory fingers at each other.

Das has taken over the charge of the state from seniorleader Shaktisinh Gohil.

The Congress performed miserably in the recentassembly elections in which it fought 70 seats but won only19, causing its allies to accuse it of being the weak link inthe Grand Alliance which gave a tough fight to the ruling NDA.

Das, who hails from neighbouring Odisha, admitted thatthe party was in a ''kamjor'' (weak) position in the state andsaid his efforts would be to strengthen it.

He said he wuld start a commissionary-wise tour fromJanuary 31 in a bid to once again make the party the voice ofpoor, unemployed and deprived sections of the society.

Following the incident during the day, keyconstituents of the ruling NDA the BJP and the JD(U) - tooka swipe at the Congress claiming that the party does not haveany culture.

''The Congress does not exist on the ground, it hasconfined to a party on paper only. The incident at SadaqatAshram shows that it has neither any policy nor any system,nor culture,'' Bihar BJP spokesman Nikhil Anand said.

JD(U) spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said, ''The chaos,nuisance and resentment in the state unit were evident beforethe Congress in-charge. It is certain that tough days lieahead for the party and it has no plan of action to deal withthe problem.'' PTI AR NNSNS SNS

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)