State Cong chief blames AICC members for crisis

PATNA: Amid rumours of split in Congress legislature party in Bihar, Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) chief Ashok Chaudhary on Thursday accused senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) functionaries of conspiring to remove him as the chief of the state unit.
Chaudhary did not participate in party vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s one-on-one meetings with Bihar legislators on Thursday citing prior engagements.Chaudhary told TOI he would meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul shortly.
Chaudhary, the 49-year-old Mahadalit leader, who became BPCC chief in March 2013, turned emotional while defending allegations of engineering a split in Bihar unit of Congress.
“I have been working to strengthen Congress in Bihar over the past 25 years. I completely dedicated myself in rejuvenating the party as its state chief for four years. Now, people are blaming me for the ills plaguing the party. I know all this is being done as part of a conspiracy and even senior AICC functionaries are behind it. These are the people who are behind the crisis in party. I don’t have grievance against anyone. If people think everything would be fine with my ouster, I am ready to leave the post and continue to serve the party,” Chaudhary said.
Asked why he skipped the meeting called by Rahul, Chaudhary said, “I met Sonia and Rahul twice after Bihar CM Nitish Kumar dumped Grand Alliance in July and joined hands with BJP. As I had some prior personal engagements for the day, I could not attend the meeting.”
There are speculations that Chaudhary has support of 14 Congress MLAs and four MLCs in Bihar, but they need four more MLAs to escape anti-defection law for crossing over to JD(U). Eight ministerial berths are vacant in Nitish cabinet at present. Political observers said Nitish kept these berths vacant just to lure the dissident MLAs of Congress.
It is believed that Chaudhary also enjoys support of Congress legislator party leader in Bihar Sadanand Singh. Congress insiders said though Chaudhary and Singh are not quite fond of each other, they share good relations with Nitish. Singh, a nine-term MLA, is from Nitish’s Kurmi caste.
However, Congress spokesman Premchandra Mishra said JD(U)’s efforts to engineer a split in the party have turned futile. “They (Chaudhary and Singh) had got the support of 14 MLAs and four MLCs for crossing over to JD(U). But three of these MLAs have now withdrawn their names and the matter has also been conveyed to central leadership of the party,” Mishra said.