Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 15 (IANS) A delegation of Congress leaders from Bihar who had come to Delhi to express their resentment over “lopsided” list of state unit office-bearers and seek replacement of state chief Anil Sharma have left the capital without getting a chance to meet party president Sonia Gandhi.
The leaders, who were camping in the capital for the past four days, however, met party general secretary Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders.

“We have conveyed our feelings to the party leadership. We need a formidable space in the state to fight against Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan,” Ashok Ram, the party’s leader in the state legislative assembly, told IANS.

Ram said the party leadership had heard them and they will abide by its decision. The delegation included former state unit chiefs Sadanand Singh and Ram Jatan Sinha, state Congress secretary Mehmood Ali Kaiser and some legislators met Rahul Gandhi wednesday.

Asked why they were not able to meet the Congress president, Ram said they had come to meet Rahul Gandhi with whom a meeting had already been scheduled, and also requested to meet Sonia Gandhi too during their visit.

Congress sources, however, said Sonia Gandhi did not meet the delegation as she did not want to send a message about divisions in the party.

Apart from complaints by the party leaders over the newly-appointed office bearers, Anil Sharma and party general secretary and Bihar in charge Jagdish Tytler are facing controversy for specifying the castes of the permanent invitees and 99 special invitees in the party list.

Tytler, however, has denied that the official list mentioned castes of the office-bearers. He regretted inclusion of Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar’s name among the permanent invitees and said the mistake was immediately rectified after it was brought to his notice.

Meira Kumar is among the 64 permanent invitees of the state Congress unit, but cannot hold a party post since she holds a constitutional office.