Factional fight of Bihar Congress comes to fore

A factional fight within the Bihar Congress has surfaced over the birth anniversary celebrations of one of the party's tallest leaders and the state's first Chief Minister Sri Krishna Sinha.
Two separate functions were organised by two warring factions to celebrate Sinha's 129th birth anniversary.
A big function was organised at SK Memorial Hall by former Union minister and senior party leader Akhilesh Prasad Singh who is at loggerheads with Bihar Congress chief Ashok Choudhary.
Another function was organised at Sadaqat Ashram, the party's state headquarters, which was presided over by Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Minister Awadhesh Kumar Singh.
Choudhary, who is also a minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet, timed his visit to Dubai to participate in the 'Sir Sayyed Ahmad Day' functions organised by the alumni of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), reportedly to skip the programmes organised by the rival faction.

The factional fight was apparent from the fact that besides Choudhary, three other ministers from the Congress quota -- Madan Mohan Jha, Abdul Jalil Mastan and Awdesh Kumar Singh -- were present at the Patna Airport to receive senior party leaders such as CP Joshi, Meira Kumar, Shakeel Ahmad but skipped the function at SK Memorial Hall.

The supporters of the rival factions also reportedly jostled with each other at the airport to draw the attention of the senior Congress leaders.
Media reports had highlighted how Choudhary had organised a conference of Dalits and Muslims recently at the same SK Memorial Hall where Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad was present.

Senior leaders though tried to keep the factional fight under wraps.
While thanking Akhilesh Prasad Singh for organising the event, Congress national general secretary Shakeel Ahmad said certain elements wanted to make the members of the minority and majority communities fight each other.
"There are people who want to make 15-18 per cent (minorities) people fight with the 80 per cent (majority) in the name of religion by distorting history," he said.