Sonia gives Bihar Cong unit a facelift

The BPCC will now have five working presidents, 114 members of the election campaign committee, and nearly 20 general secretaries. Party sources say this is purely a move to alleviate factionalism.

At one stage, the party decided to replace Sadanand with a more dynamic leader but no such person was available. The sources say the party leadership is satisfied with his performance and, moreover, in the present situation when the party istrying to project itself as anti-RJD, a person like Sadanand is useful.

But Sadanand’s troubles have begun mounting. Devoid of any clear-cut political directive, the state unit is not in a position to take a definite line. The high command still does not approve the demand of the state unit for President’s Rule in Bihar.

Recently, party leader Bhanu Pratap Sharma told the Pradesh Congress Committee leadership the party would not demand imposition of President’s Rule.The state leaders rue this stand of the high command. They feel that raising this demand would send the appropriate message to the people.

Though the Congress high command has severed its relations with the RJD, it has so far not adopted a hard stance against it. This is yet another source of embarrassment for the state party leadership. It feels that, since the elections are due in February, the leadership must come out with hardhitting statements against the RJD and officially announce the withdrawal of support to the RJD government.

TheCongress has taken the stand that it has not given any written undertaking, hence there is no need to come out with a public statement. But the state leaders feel that people will still see the Congress as an ally of the RJD.