Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, June 1: Notwithstanding humiliating defeat of the party in recently held Lok Sabha elections, factionalism refuses to die in State Congress as acrimonious scenes amidst open allegations marred the meeting of PCC chief Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz with the senior party functionaries from Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts on Sunday.
While a section of leaders vociferously raised the demand for declaring Ghulam Nabi Azad as the Chief Ministerial candidate ahead of forthcoming Assembly elections, Prof Soz favoured early announcement of the party candidates.
“I am going to New Delhi for a meeting with the party high command and appeal early announcement of the Congress candidates so that they may get adequate time for their success by preparing ground among masses,” he said in the meeting, which was attended by Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Sham Lal Sharma, Minister for Housing and Culture, Raman Bhalla, district and block president of Jammu, Kathua, Samba, PCC vice presidents, general secretaries and other senior leaders of the party from these three districts.
A number of speakers accused the Ministers of maintaining a distance from the party functionaries and promoting their own groups at the cost of block presidents.
In a veiled attack on Soz faction, the Block president of Bani, Thakur Dass even suggested that entire leadership of the Pradesh Congress should resign on moral grounds owing the responsibility for defeat of Ghulam Nabi Azad and Madan Lal Sharma.
Going a step ahead, two Congress leaders Jag Ram (Sarpanch Naran Muthi) and Vijay Tagotra (Sarpanch Gagwal) openly alleged that Soz faction was instrumental in ensuring defeat of Ghulam Nabi Azad. Shouting slogans, Jag Ram also walked out of the meeting.
Naresh Sharma from Kathua accused former MP Lal Singh of openly working against Azad in the Lok Sabha elections and also submitted some documentary evidences to Prof Soz in support of his allegations.
As the party functionaries intensified hurling of allegations against the Congress Ministers and senior functionaries, the PCC chief asked the media persons to leave the meeting hall for avoiding embarrassment.
The meeting was organized for seeking suggestions to rejuvenate the party and get feedback on the reasons behind humiliating defeat of the Congress candidates in Lok Sabha elections.
A number of speakers also held pre-poll alliance with National Conference as one of the reasons behind defeat of Congress candidates and strongly opposed such alliance in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
Taking cognizance of the complaints, Prof Soz announced that he would write to the Ministers to improve their liaison and interaction with district president, block presidents and other functionaries of the party.
The PCC chief further said that the party high command would be appraised of the suggestions listed for revitalizing Congress party as an instrument of service to the people. He emphasized that the neighbourhood should be treated as the most important factor and Congress workers should put an extra effort to solve people’s problems.
He admitted before the party functionaries that despite doing many good things for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the NC-Congress alliance failed to deliver governance on ground and fulfillment of basic needs.
Prof Soz assured the gathering that he would constitute a committee comprising of credible persons to go in to the question of rejuvenating the block and district committees, as early as possible.
In a bid to give an impression that there was no factionalism in the party, Prof Soz claimed that he and Ghulam Nabi Azad were on the same page and the later would soon visit the workers and speak to the party functionaries.
Prominent among those present in the meeting Thakur Hari Singh, Mula Ram, Prem Sagar Aziz, Suman Bhagat, S Gurmukh Singh, MLC Ravinder Sharma, Swaran Lata, MLA Indu Pawar, Vinod Sharma, Hans Raj Bhagat, Thakur Balwan Singh, Chuni Lal Bhat, Vinod Mishra, Thakur Maheshwar Singh, Ch Shah Mohammad, Darshan Raina, Thakur Manmohan Singh, Vikram Malhotra, Girdhari Lal Chalotra, Thakur Shiv Dev Singh, Om Chopra, Prakash Sharma, Subash Gupta, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Lal Mohammad Sabir, Gurbachan Kumari, Thakur Balbir Singh, Hari Singh Chib, Krishan Lal Gupta, Pawan Raina, Narinder Gupta, Rajiv K. Gupta, Neeraj Gupta, Dr Karan Bhagat, Thomas Khokhar, Namrata Sharma, Rajeev Saraf, H S Metha, Dr Kanwal Singh, Santosh Majotra, Rajni Bala, Arardhana Andotra and others.
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