With differences between PCC president Anil Sharma and AICC in-charge of Bihar Jagdish Tytler deepening further, the high command has decided to ease them out of the state organisation. Consultations are on to find replacements.
Party sources said AICC spokesperson and leader from Bihar Shakeel Ahmed and senior leader from eastern UP Harikesh Bahadur are the frontrunners to replace Mr Sharma and Mr Tytler, respectively, in the poll-bound state, where elections are due to take place in October-November this year.
Mr Bahadur is an upper caste Thakur from Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Mr Ahmed a Muslim from Bihar. Key Congress strategists feel that the duo suits the party’s game plan in Bihar to emerge as the third force in the state politics. “The Muslim-forward caste combination is going to be potent force, as forward caste voters are now disenchanted with the ruling JD(U)-BJP combine over many issues, besides the state government intends to give land rights to share croppers and Muslim voters are undecided over their support,” a party strategist said.
Amidst the stalemate between Mr Sharma and Mr Tytler, the party is fast losing the green shoots in its favour, which were visible when AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi visited the state in February this year. “He set the stage perfect for the Congressmen to capitalise on and turn the party into some relevance in power equation of the state. But the intra-power struggle between the two (Mr Tytler and Mr Sharma) is costing the party dearly,” he lamented.
The differences between Mr Sharma and Mr Tytler have widened so much that each of them has started asking junior party functionaries not to attend meetings called by the other. “For the last fortnight both Mr Tytler and Mr Sharma are camping here, leaving the state unit of the party in lurch. They are also meeting senior party leaders and lobbying with them to remove the other,” a senior leader said, adding that the top leadership is, however, not in favour of removing one of them. “Any compromise between the two appears to be impossible,” he said.