Remain united, Sonia tells Bihar Congress

NEW DELHI: Worried over resentment in its Bihar unit over ticket distribution, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has urged party workers to fight the polls unitedly.

In her ‘Letter to the Congresspersons’ in the party mouthpiece Congress Sandesh, Ms Sonia Gandhi said: “Bihar assembly election is the next challenge facing Congress. Our party workers must give our opponents a united fight. Only by doing so, we will strengthen our organisation and lead the party to victory.”

The message comes after a series of incidents where party workers vented their ire on senior Congress leaders and district offices. Angry Congress workers had locked AICC secretary Sagar Rayka at Patna headquarters for seven hours last week, the party office in Purnia was set on fire, office-bearers of east Champaran district quit to protest ticket distribution, workers vandalised Congress office in Madhubani and protesters burnt effigies of Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar at Sasaram.

The editorial of the magazine also talks of revival of Congress in Bihar. “Congress would be fighting elections alone after 20 years. One would have thought that after two decades Congress would have difficulty in identifying candidates in some of the seats. But the enthusiasm and mad rush for winning the candidature of Congress is indeed very heartening. It can now be understood that the organisation was only dormant due to compulsions of coalition politics and was raring to go once an opportunity arose,” says the editorial.

The party is going all out in Bihar. After taking on the chief minister on his development plank, Congress questioned his secular credentials on Wednesday. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said: “BJP and JD(U) alliance is the biggest example of political opportunism. Nitish Kumar has led a coalition government in Bihar for five years and has been a minister in NDA government but he does not want to share the dais with BJP leaders.

Does the chief minister think that along with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi even BJP is responsible for Gujarat carnage? When the entire NDA government was trying to brush the Gujarat carnage under the carpet, why didn’t Nitish Kumar quit from Cabinet? The reality is that in his heart Nitish Kumar is a communal man.” Congress clearly said that it considered JD (U) a communal force.