RANCHI: The state leadership of the Congress on Wednesday seemed unruffled with the recent developments wherein four of its lawmakers reached the party’s Delhi Durbar seeking sweeping reforms.
“The party’s democratic setup gives every karyakarta the opportunity to meet the national leadership.
There is nothing wrong in it,” Congress legislative party leader Alamgir Alam told TOI on Wednesday.
While Alam shrugged off the episode, state Congress chief Rameshwar Oraon also seemed unfazed about the meeting of four Congress MLAs with AICC general secretary K C Venugopal on Wednesday morning.
Jamtara MLA Irfan Ansari, Barhi MLA Umashankar Akela, Khijri MLA Rajesh Kacchap and Ramgarh MLA Mamata Devi met Venugopal on Wednesday morning at the latter’s residence and held discussions for 45 minutes.
Speaking after the meeting, Ansari said: “We discussed the ways in which our organization can be strengthened in Jharkhand.
We demanded that the 20 points committee should be constituted at the earliest and that our MLAs and karyakartas should be given their due share of respect.” Ansari, who is also one of the five working presidents, underscored that Congress should be allocated the vacant berth in the state cabinet.
“JMM is the bigger party in the alliance.
It holds the offices of the CM and the Assembly speaker.
Congress should be given the vacant berth,” he claimed.
Akela claimed Venugopal and AICC national in-charge for Jharkhand RPN Singh sought detailed reports on the work done by the party during the second wave of the pandemic.
Congress sources in Ranchi, however, said Ansari’s ‘dissent’ stemmed from the fact that he was left out of the cabinet berth.
“But it needs to be reminded that he holds the post of the chairman of the Haj Committee as well,” a senior functionary said.
The meeting of the four MLAs with senior AICC leadership can lead to stormy sessions in the Congress legislative party meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday in Ranchi.
“Various issues will be discussed and debated,” Alam said.