Ranchi: Four Congress MLAs, who are known detractors of the state party leadership, rushed to Delhi on Tuesday, three days after the return of Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Rameshwar Oraon from the national capital, to lobby for their “share” in the government or any government-supported boards and corporations.
The four MLAs are the party’s co-working president and Jamtara legislator Irfan Ansari, Mamta Devi (Ramgarh), Rajesh Kachchap (Khijiri) and Umashankar Akela (Barhi).
In the run-up to the 2019 assembly polls, Akela, who was then BJP MLA from Barhi, joined Congress to contest from the seat after the saffron camp denied him the ticket.
On Tuesday, the four met party’s Jharkhand affairs in-charge RPN Singh and are eyeing to meet the Congress national secretary K C Venugopal, the MLAs said.
Talking to TOI after meeting RPN Singh, Irfan, who led the delegation, said, “We have just come to discuss with the Congress central leaders about ways of strengthening the party in the state.
Even though we are in the government after our good performance in the 2019 assembly election, the party is gradually becoming weak on the ground.
It needs to be strengthened.” Stating that there are some problems within the party, Ansari said, “Many grassroots workers are feeling de-motivated and felt that they are not getting the proper respect they deserved.
Elections of the JPCC is not done for many years now.
The 20-point programme committee, too, isn’t in place.
There are many woes for which we have come to discuss.” Meanwhile, party sources said the four MLAs are eyeing “respectable” positions both within the party and other government-supported entities.
Notably, the 12th ministerial berth in the cabinet is still vacant.
Congress and JMM — the key alliance partners have already staked claims on it many times.
Speculations about the possibility of talks for the 12th berth gained traction last week after chief minister Hemant Soren and Oraon rushed to Delhi separately.
While Oraon met with the party’s central leaders, Soren returned after spending four days without meeting anyone.
Talking to reporters, Soren later said that he was on a personal trip and not for any political meetings.