Bihar Congress Issues Notices to 29 Leaders Over Delhi Protest

The Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee has moved against 29 of its own leaders, issuing show-cause notices over their alleged role in a September 8 demonstration held near the All India Congress Committee office in New Delhi.

The notices, signed by disciplinary committee chairman Kapildev Prasad Yadav, accuse the leaders of anti-party activity and indiscipline. The committee said their participation in the protest breached the party's policy, discipline and directions, and amounted to serious indiscipline.

Each leader has 72 hours from receipt of the notice to file a written explanation and to state why disciplinary action should not be initiated. The committee has said it will be free to act unilaterally under party rules if replies are delayed or found unsatisfactory.

Those issued notices include former MLAs Anil Singh and Poonam Devi, along with former district Congress presidents Vidhushekhar Pandey (Siwan), Bharat Bhushan Dubey (West Champaran), Satyendra Yadav (Madhepura) and Mrityunjay Singh (Aurangabad).

The protest followed an announcement by a section of disgruntled leaders that they would demonstrate in Delhi seeking the removal of Bihar Congress president Rajesh Ram and AICC in-charge for Bihar Krishna Allavaru, alleging corruption in the party organisation.

The latest action is the continuation of a longer internal dispute. Nine leaders were expelled from the party for six years on February 18, and they challenged the move on the ground that the state unit could not remove them without approval from the AICC disciplinary committee.

The group had also demanded the withdrawal of notices issued to 47 Congress leaders, including the nine expelled, arguing that the state unit had exceeded its powers. They took their concerns about organisational corruption to senior Congress leaders, and said they sought meetings with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi without getting appointments.

According to the leaders, some of them met Kharge and senior figures K C Venugopal and Ashok Gehlot at a hotel in Patna on November 3 last year, where they were told their grievances would be heard after the Assembly elections.

The state leadership has rejected the criticism, stating that those planning the Delhi protest had already been expelled and that its mandate from the central leadership was to strengthen the organisation. The expelled leaders were reportedly asked by senior Delhi leaders to raise their grievances with the Bihar Congress chief, but declined to do so.