Congress’s Jharkhand in-charge: No Haryana-like factionalism in state unit; pro-incumbency for INDIA

PTI New Delhi: Exuding confidence of a strong performance by the Congress in the assembly polls, AICC Jharkhand in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir on Tuesday asserted that unlike Haryana, there was no factionalism in the state unit and all decisions in the run up to the elections were taken by consensus among senior leaders. He said Haryana is not comparable with any other stated and also pointed to the complaints filed by the Congress with the Election Commission on the polls process there. In an interview with PTI, the Congress general secretary also claimed that there was a “pro-incumbency” in favour of Jharkhand’s INDIA bloc government which was moving forward under the leadership of Hemant Soren, while the BJP had “headless voices” with no one projected to lead the state.

Mir exuded confidence that the JMM-Congress-RJD-CPI(ML) alliance would do better than the last polls and could go beyond the 50-seat mark in the 81-member assembly. While Jharkhand had won 30 seats, the Congress had won 16 and the RJD had emerged victorious on one seat in the 2019 assembly polls in Jharkhand. The CPI(ML), which had contested separately, had won just one seat. The Congress general secretary also hit out at the prime minister for his ‘ek rahoge toh safe rahoge (united we remain safe)’ remarks, saying, “no one would have thought that the PM of the country would stoop to such levels”. “There is also a dispute among them, while (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister) Yogi Adityanath says ‘batoge toh katoge’, PM says ‘ek rahoge toh safe rahoge’, first they should decide whose slogan they want to proceed with,” Mir told PTI.

Asked if the shock defeat in Haryana could have a negative impact on Jharkhand polls, the Congress leader said Haryana has a politics of its own which cannot be compared with any other state in the country. “Various factions existed within the party in Haryana and there was an impact of factionalism there, hence consensus could not be reached on choice of candidates and there were also fingers raised (and matters taken up) with the EC.…but in harkhand, there is no factionalism within the Congress,” Mir said.