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Congress leadership won’t change in Jharkhand: Rameshwar Oraon
State Congress chief and finance minister Rameshwar Oraon has been stationed in New Delhi for past three days and has met senior Congress leaders, including K Venugopal, general secretary (organisation). Speaking to a news agency, Oraon said he met the senior leaders on account of his good relations with them.
State Congress chief and finance minister Rameshwar Oraon on Saturday ruled out possibilities of change in guard of the party in Jharkhand, saying that his recent meet with party leaders in the national capital was a “courtesy call”.
Oraon has been stationed in New Delhi for past three days and has met senior Congress leaders, including K Venugopal, general secretary (organisation). Speaking to a news agency, Oraon said he met the senior leaders on account of his good relations with them.
“It was a courtesy meet. If there is an agenda for a meeting, we will inform. If changing anyone makes the party stronger, then the high command can do it. I think there won’t be any change,” he said.
The comment comes at a time when speculations were rife about a change of the party’s president in Jharkhand, on lines of some other states. A section of party workers has also been openly demanding that Oraon should make way for someone else, following the central leadership’s stated stance of “one person, one post” for the party workers.
Oraon took charge of the faction-ridden Jharkhand unit of the party months before the Assembly elections in 2019 in the state. After the three-party alliance came to power, Oraon was also made the finance minister in the Hemant Soren government.
After Oraon left for the national capital on Monday last, chief minister Hemant Soren also left for the city the same day, stoking speculations that the alliance parties could finalise filling the only vacant berth in the Hemant cabinet. Both JMM and Congress have staked claim to the position of 12th ministerial position in the state government.
Though Oraon reiterated party’s claim to the ministerial berth, he played down reports that it was on the agenda as of now. “We will demand the remaining berth in the Cabinet, but it’s the prerogative of the chief minister to do that as per the Constitution. This time, neither I nor the chief minister have come to Delhi for the 12th minister,” Oraon was quoted saying by the aforementioned news agency.
