Balmuchu’s days as State Cong chief over
Vijay Deo Jha Thursday, July 16, 2009
What Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said, during a debate on Tuesday, about the tentative date of Jharkhand Assembly election, it was aimed at the audiences sitting in the Central Hall of Parliament. The audiences were a handful of UPA MLAs, including president of the State Congress Pradeep Balmuchu, who had not lost hope of yet another UPA Government in the State.
While the political parties have started exercises for the election, it left many a UPA leaders wary about their future. The well-placed source in the Congress confided that former finance minister Stephen Marandi was in hurry to sport the Congress' tag.
Marandi held a meeting with Ahmed Patel, the political advisor of Congress president Sonia Gandhi over his proposed crossover to the Congress fold. The Congress secretly sent seductive notes to the RJD fold also. "RJD MLA from Sarath Uday Shankar Singh and the Jharkhand Party MLA of Tamar, Raja Peter, are also in the wish list of the Congress.
The party, in fact, is looking for the potential leaders in view of the Assembly elections," said a senior Congress leader indicating about a long list of such leaders. After Chidambaram declined the Congress was willing to form the Government, he hinted the Assembly election could probably be held after the monsoon was over; the hope of Balmuchu was dashed to the ground.
Also the replacement of Balmuchu is a matter of time and the stint of the former might not go beyond the month of July, said a senior Congress leader. The Congress bosses are still to settle the leadership issues in Jharkhand following a campaign against Balmuchu by a section of party leaders.
"Reshuffle in the State unit of the Congress could be made anytime after the proposed revamping of the AICC on Friday. More probably the decision will be made in the favour of a tribal leader for the post of president," a party MLA said after returning from New Delhi.
Till the time the Congress decides a new president, the delay has only created an impasse and a state of confusion among the ranks and file of the party leaders and workers. A deeply divided Congress with atrophied organisational base, this election will be a litmus test for the party.
Even the party insiders accepted that present party president drained precious time in securing the nod of the Central high command to form a Government in Jharkhand. "Probably from the last two months he was trying to divert the attention of the party from the change of the guard in the Congress towards government formation exercise which was meaningless," said Dadai Dubey, the former Congress MP from Dhanbad, a sworn enemy of Balmuchu. A day before the debate in Parliament over the extension of the President's Rule in Jharkhand; State Congress in-charge K Keshav Rao subtly hinted the replacement of Balmuchu.
Union Cabinet Minister for Food and Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahay, the senior party leader Rajendra Singh and former Union Tribal Affair Minister Rameswar Oraon are the front runners for the post. Whoever be the next Congress president, it will not be an apprentice job.
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