Congress a divided house

RANCHI: Disunity in the Congress has once again come to the fore despite the Lok Sabha elections being just round the corner.
Though the party has announced the name of the candidate for Ranchi parliamentary seat, members are not extending support to each other.
This disunity comes at a time when the party has entered into a pre-poll alliance with JMM, RJD and CPM with the hope that the parties would help each other in their respective seats is bound to affect the chances of the party winning elections.
According to party workers, of the four candidates, including R L Bhatia, Gopal Sahu, S K Sahay and Pratibha Pandey, who strongly lobbied with the Congress high command for party ticket from the Ranchi seat, Bhatia and Sahu have disappeared from the scene since the day Sahay was nominated.
Workers say though Bhatia and Sahu claimed that they would win the elections on their own from here if allowed to contest, none of them have come forward for the cause of the party so far.
None of them have even attended a single party meeting concerning elections since the day of Sahay''s nomination.
Instead of lending their support by campaigning for the party, Bhatia has come up with anti-Congress statements in the media.
Party sources say such disunity has even caused discomfort among the alliance partners, who have sacrificed the ticket to help the Congress win.
Party workers said that they could not answer to the queries of workers of other parties, who insisted on including all Congress stalwarts in campaigning.