Congress to take leaf out of Kolebira for 2019 polls

RANCHI: Namal Bixal Kongari, the newly sworn-in Congress legislator from Kolebira who trumped his BJP rival Basant Soreng by nearly 10,000 votes to clinch the seat, on Wednesday met his national president Rahul Gandhi at his residence in New Delhi in the evening. The meeting went on for 30 minutes.
Speaking to TOI after the meeting, Kongari said, “Our national president wanted to know the ground situation in Kolebira and sought for ways to deliver a winning performance next year.” Kongari was accompanied by Jharkhand Congress president Ajoy Kumar and the party’s national-in-charge for Jharkhand RPN Singh.

Kongari’s meeting with Gandhi assumed significance as it came a day ahead of Singh’s scheduled Ranchi visit. Party sources in Ranchi said Singh is due to consult leaders and chalk out the future course of the party in Jharkhand.

Congress, which has been trying to carve out a Mahagatbandhan in Jharkhand with JMM, JVM-P and RJD, increased in confidence with the Kolebira win. Days later, Kumar announced that it will not contest the elections in Jharkhand with a face in advance.

Sources said Kolebira, with a lion’s share of minority votes, presented a test case for Congress with JMM backing Jharkhand Party candidate Menon Ekka. “It also showed us that the party can do well if it can strengthen its booth level activities,” a Congress functionary in Ranchi said. The functionary added that five major rallies are being planned state-wide to further swing the mood of voters in Congress’ favor ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Meanwhile, the BJP national leadership on Wednesday named Bihar health minister Mangal Pandey as the party’s national in+ charge for Jharkhand for 2019 Parliamentary polls. BJP national president Amit Shah also announced national in charges for 17 other states.