SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Feb 21: The non-inclusion of Jharkhand INTUC president Rakeswer Pandey as a delegate in the state list for the All India Congress Committee (AICC) plenary session scheduled to be held at Raipur of Chhattisgarh from February 24 to 26 has triggered sharp resentment in rank and file of the party.
For the three–day AICC plenary session, 41 leaders of the party were elected delegates and 18 members were nominated from Jharkhand to attend. But the names of INTUC president Rakeswer Pandey, vice-president Suresh Chandra Jha, senior Congress leader Sultan Ahmed, Arun Kumar Singh and other senior leaders of different districts are missing.
Senior Congress leaders of the state while expressing resentment said that the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) is the labour frontal organization of the Cong Party.
Jharkhand INTUC presidents, be it late Pt Bindeswari Dubey or Rajendra Prasad Singh, were always made members of delegates in AICC plenary sessions. But this time, the current leadership of the state unit has ignored it.
A senior leader said that it is a serious matter. The state INTUC would raise the issue (omission of Rakeswer Pandey) with AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge when he would come to inaugurate the INTUC National convention scheduled to start in Delhi tomorrow (February 22-23).
State INTUC vice-president Suresh Chandra Jha admitted that resentment has prevailed in the rank and file of the party as well as the organisation from the omission of Rakeswer Pandey’s name in the delegates list of state for the Raipur AICC plenary session.
“INTUC dominates five Lok Sabha constituencies including Jamshedpur and Dhanbad in Jharkhand. Former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and former AICC president Sonia Gandhi used to give due importance to INTUC leaders in AICC affairs. But labour leaders are surprised that even the INTUC state president has been ignored when the party is trying to regain its base in Jharkhand,” he said.
Senior Cong leaders of different districts of the state held the working style of Jharkhand in-charge Avinash Pandey and state president Rajesh Thakur responsible for this mess in the organization.
A senior leader, who has been active since 1972 and served the party as NSUI, Youth Congress and office–bearer of the party said that Rajesh Thakur and Avinash Pandey do not receive calls from devoted leaders and have sidelined them in the present set-up.
“First they do not receive calls. I try it repeatedly, they send messages to give in writing in WhatsApp. Secondly, whenever we gave a written message we never got a reply. This is the working style of both the leaders, who have almost kept organisation beyond the reach of devoted and mass base leaders,” said a former office-bearer of the party.
