Months before assembly elections in the state, Jharkhand Congress chief Ajoy Kumar resigned from the state party chief’s post accusing many senior leaders with “vested interests” from the state of thwarting his efforts to rebuild the party bottom-up.
In his resignation sent to outgoing party president Rahul Gandhi on August 8, Kumar has also accused his opponents in the party of “hiring goons to assault him in the party office”.
The development is a setback for the state unit with assembly elections scheduled for later this year. It is also another blow for the Congress. the party received a drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections and its president Rahul Gandhi resigned soon after. Two-months-and-a-bit after that, the party’s decision making Congress Working Committee will finally meet on Saturday to start the process of finding a new president. Meanwhile, in the confusion, the party has seen mass defections in Goa, and its coaolition government with the Janata Dal Secular in Karnataka has fallen.The state unit itself has been witnessing infighting, with several senior leaders of the party demanding Kumar’s removal from the post holding him responsible for the drubbing of the party candidates in the Lok Sabha elections.
“My zero tolerance for corruption and any form of mediocrity hampers me from doing my job effectively. Accordingly, please accept my formal letter of resignation as the President of the Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee,” said Kumar in his resignation, which has been marked to 10 top leaders of the party including Sonia Gandhi and party’s state in-charge RPN Singh.
{{/usCountry}}“My zero tolerance for corruption and any form of mediocrity hampers me from doing my job effectively. Accordingly, please accept my formal letter of resignation as the President of the Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee,” said Kumar in his resignation, which has been marked to 10 top leaders of the party including Sonia Gandhi and party’s state in-charge RPN Singh.
{{/usCountry}}“…Unfortunately, as I have now come to see very clearly, some of our party leaders, the likes of Subodh Kant Sahai, Rameshwar Oraon, Pradeep Balmuchu, Chandrasekhar Dubey, Furqan Ansari and several other senior leaders have only sought to grab political posts for personal benefits and have made every attempt to bypass the systems that have been put in place for the benefit of the party,” Kumar added.
Kumar, a former Member of Parliament from Jamsedhpur, was appointed Jharkhand PCC chief in November 2017.
On August 3, general secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal held a meeting of all warring factions in New Delhi and had directed them to not speak in public before the CWC takes a decision on the issue after election of the new national president.
The infighting in the state unit spilled over on to the street on July 23 when few party workers tried to stop Kumar from entering party headquarters in Ranchi. However, his security personnel and supporters managed to get him in. Protesting workers also burned Kumar’s effigy. Following direction from the state leadership, Ranchi district unit president Sanjay Pandey then suspended six party workers involved in the protest.
A week later, on July 31 supporters of Ajoy Kumar and Subodh Kant Sahai clashed at the party office, forcing police to use force to disperse the warring groups. Kumar’s decision to suspend two senior leaders Rakesh Sinha and Surendra Singh, considered loyalists of former union minister Subodh Kant Sahai was said to be the trigger.
Referring to such incidents, Kumar in his letter said, “…My patience tested its limits when my own party members hired goons to assault me in the party office…the malaise is deep-rooted. Over the last few months, I have faced interference on several fronts, whether it’s an alliance issue, double standards with respect to Congress workers, non-formation of the PCC or continuous pandering to put dishonest people to posts.”
Sahai and Balmuchu could be reached for comment despite repeated attempts.