Sparks fly at party meet, seniors clash, video viral
Internal feud of Jharkhand unit of Congress party spilled over in public once again on Monday, with senior party leaders almost coming to blows at a meeting chaired by the party’s state president Rameshwar Oraon and legislature party leader Alamgir Alam.
The ruckus was created during a meeting called to discuss modalities of the party’s proposed three-day campaign against rise in petrol and diesel prices at Congress state headquarters here.
A video of the meeting, which has now went viral, shows senior party and Jharkhand Congress spokesperson Alok Dubey involving in heated exchange of words with working presidents Keshav Mahto Kamlesh and Rajesh Thakur. As these leaders could be seen involved in an animated discussion, others in the room jumped in the nick of time and separated the two groups as things escalated.
This was the second occasion when party workers created a ruckus in presence of state unit chief within a period of three days.
On Saturday, Congress workers had created ruckus in a meeting and foundation laying of a party office in Giridih by state and working president Irfan Ansari.
When asked to comment on the matter, Jharkhand Congress chief and state finance minister Rameshwar Oraon, however, played down the incident, saying there was no internal rife in the party.
“Our party is alive. At times, people do get animated while discussing certain issues. We have internal democracy in our party. There is nothing called internal fight. Our strength is visible out in the street when we hold rallies and protests over certain issues. Recent tractor rallies in Hazaribagh and Godda are examples of it,” said Oraon.
However, party insiders said even AICC in-charge of Jharkhand RPN Singh failed to contain the infighting and the recent incident was more disturbing,
Our party is alive. At times, people do get animated while discussing certain issues. We have internal democracy in our party. There is nothing called as internal fight. RAMESHWAR ORAON, Jharkhand Congress chief
as Singh was in Ranchi on a two-day visit and left for New Delhi on Monday morning.
‘Campaign against fuel price hike’
Meanwhile, the state Congress has decided to hold a three-day campaign against the unprecedented hike in prices of.petrol and diesel, cornering the central government over the issue.
Oraon said party leaders would hold press conferences in all district headquarters on February 25, organised marches on February 26 and sit-in protests, demanding reduction in fuel prices on February 27.
Blaming the Centre for the high fuel prices, finance minister Rameshwar Oraon said there were no plans as of yet to reduce VAT in the state.
“We have only excise and VAT as our source of revenue. The high prices are a result of wrong policies of the Centre. They should increase our share in taxes if they want us to reduce VAT,” he added.