Ranchi, Oct 22: The nomination of Birbal Prasad Mehta by the Samata Party's central leadership to head its Jharkhand unit to end the long-drawn factional politics in the state has 'politically proved inexpedient' as a section led by at least one minister refuses to accept the choice. "We know there are two ways to have a president - elections and nominations. You know the elections for president was scrapped by the central leadership due to illegal process and we don't have any official confirmation about anybody being nominated as state chief," senior leader and former state party vice-president Krishnanand Mishra told reporters today.
Even as Mishra is preparing to take a team of members to call on party president and Defence Minister George Fernandes and Railways Minister Nitish Kumar in New Delhi in the first week of November, Mehta said he was in the process of dispatching a detailed report to the central leadership on "how a section led by a minister is still engaged in flouting party norms."
"Leaders like Mishra, Baidyanath Ram Gopi, Bateshwar Mehta and Damodar Mahto had on October 19 organised the party's anniversary without consulting anybody," said Mehta, whom Nitish Kumar nominated as president after a section of the state party revolted against the re-election of the former state president Ramesh Singh Munda, which also led to the scrapping of the presidential polls this summer.
Bureau Report