Congress leaders in Jharkhand have expressed discontent over Mir’s remarks on power-sharing, sparking tensions within the ruling alliance.
New Delhi: Congress leaders in the election bound state of Jharkhand are unhappy over the remarks made by General Secretary In charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir. During a meeting with party workers in Ranchi, Mir indicated that the grand old party will get to share equal power with its alliance partner Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and have a rotational chief minister if the party performed well.
On Monday, Mir said that if Congress gets 25 to 30 seats in the Jharkhand Assembly Elections, then the chief minister will be elected on rotational basis, which means, Congress will have a chief minister for half the tenure of the government. The statement had miffed the leaders from both the camps of the ruling alliance (JMM-Congress).
A Congress leader said, “We are the junior partners in the alliance. Moreover, we don’t have that much of existence in the state that we will compete with our own alliance partner. We are a national party and JMM is a state party, and their whole existence depends on the performance in Jharkhand, they won’t take it lightly if someone speaks of dethroning them, and that too if their own alliance partner says it.”
Earlier, according to Congress insiders, the JMM leadership had been unwilling to give time for appointment to the Congress state president since the last two weeks, indicating the lopsided relationship between the alliance partners in the state.
A senior leader said, “If the JMM leadership has to do anything important, it will directly update the central leadership of Congress. They don’t value the state leaders much.”
Moreover, leaders privy to the developments said, the coordination between the two partners is very weak, none from the both the sides have tried to improve that. If it remains the same, the two parties are expected to work wayward which could dearly harm the alliance to retain the government.
JMM General Secretary and Chief Spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya said, “Everything is fine now. We have resolved issues with the Congress party.”
However, Mir had been present in the election bound state of Jammu and Kashmir to contest himself, and left the Congress in Jharkhand, vulnerable to disorder.
After receiving criticism from the leaders, Mir had later clarified, according to leaders,that the comments were made to motivate the spiritless cadre of Congress. The Congress rank and file are feeling disappointed with the disorganised functioning of the state leadership (including Mir).
A senior Congress leader said, “This is the problem with the Congress high command. If a leader is contesting elections in one state, how would he be able to focus in another election bound state? And how would he be able to plan things for another state when he is contesting in different place? Even if he goes to Jharkhand, his mind and soul will be with his own constituency (Dooru) in Kashmir.
The real leadership impact is created when the leader is close to the rank and file or close to people. And then he should frequently take update about the developments on ground and act upon it sufficiently. Now that the elections are over in Jammu and Kashmir, Mir’s focus will be back on Jharkhand.”
However, another senior party leader said that the Mir has been unable to perform in Lok Sabha elections in Jharkhand even when the people had started leaning towards Congress.
The leader said, “Mir couldn’t tap the political developments of the state very well. And he failed to map out a proper strategy to help Congress perform better. The election results could now show his contribution at all. The two Congress candidates who won in the state won from reserve seats which were also helped by JMM. In the field of administration, if a leader fails to perform, he should be removed from the responsibilities. But in Congress, this does not happen. Therefore, in upcoming elections as well, we have very low expectations.”