Ahead of polls, Congress gets a new chief in Jharkhand

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday appointed former Union minister and tribal leader Rameshwar Oraon the new party chief in the poll-bound state of Jharkhand.

Oraon, a retired 1972-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, replaces Ajoy Kumar, his junior of 14 years in the service who resigned from the post on a bitter note earlier this month.

In his August 9 resignation letter, 57-year-old Kumar, a 1986-batch IPS officer, levelled allegations against his some senior party colleagues, including Oraon, Subodh Kant Sahai, Pradeep Balmuchu and Furqan Ansari, saying they placed “personal interests” above the party and indulged in “corrupt practices”. They had refused to respond to the allegations, saying the party’s central leadership had refrained them from going public on internal matters.

A former Lok Sabha MP from Jamsedhpur, Kumar was appointed the Jharkhand Congress chief in November 2017.

Oraon, 72, Union minister of state for tribal affairs in the first term of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and head the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) for two terms from 2010 onwards, represented the Lohardaga seat in the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009.

Oraon will be assisted by five working presidents - Kavesh Mahto Kamlesh, Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Thakur, Manas Sinha and Sanjay Paswan,according to a press release issued by Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal.

The Congress in Jharkhand has been a divided house in recent months, with factionalism taking a toll on the party in the recent national elections, in which it won just one of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Its alliance partner, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), also managed to bag just one seat.

Considered close to the party’s “old guard” of senior leaders, Oraon faces the challenge of putting an end to the infighting while preparing the Congress for the assembly elections due in October-November.

Though the Congress is likely to continue its alliance with the JMM for the assembly polls, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is on a strong wicket following its excellent performance in the Lok Sabha elections, in which it won 11 seats while ally All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) secured one seat.

The Congress president also named a five-member screening committee for Jharkhand. The panel, tasked with shortlisting candidates for the upcoming assembly elections, will headed by Chhattisgarh minister TS Singh Deo and has Lok Sabha MP from Kerala Kodikunnil Suresh, All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Saleem Ahmed, general secretary RPN Singh, legislature party leader Alamgir Khan, and Oraon as its members.

In another move, Sonia Gandhi also dissolved all the state committees in Odisha constituted for the recently-concluded Lok Sabha and assembly elections.

However, state Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik and his working presidents retain their positions.