The faction-ridden Congress in Bihar finally appeared to be coming back on the tracks on Saturday after signs emerged about a long-running feud between the party’s state president Anil Sharma and the AICC’s Bihar in-charge Jagdish Tytler slowly subsiding.
Following reports that Congress national president Sonia Gandhi recently persuaded both Mr Sharma and Mr Tytler to bury their differences in the interests of the party in poll-bound Bihar, Mr Sharma on Saturday announced beginning of a fresh phase of the party’s public-contact programme and appeared to be in control of the party’s state affairs. Meanwhile, reports of some party leaders resigning en masse on Friday were also found to be baseless.
“There are no differences between us,” said Mr Sharma at a news conference when asked about the noticeable cold war between him and Mr Tytler that started in early March and assumed height with every passing week. He also said he was unaware of any Congress leader having resigned, but added: “If anyone does so, that would not be in the interests of the party.”
Sources said most of these leaders, who were said to have resigned from the Congress Bihar executive committee en masse in Delhi, were in various places in Bihar on Friday. Some of these leaders also expressed surprise when told about the reports about their resignations.
Indicating the party’s preparations for Bihar’s Assembly polls due in November, Mr Sharma said he had asked every district unit of the Congress to submit seven names of possible candidates for each of the state’s 243 Assembly constituencies. “We would like new, capable candidates to be fielded, and preferably many young faces,” he added.
The Congress is going to resume shortly its ‘Gaon-gaon, paaon-paaon’ (Visiting every village) programme in Bihar that Mr Sharma had started.