PATNA: Newly appointed state Congress incharge, Bhakta Charan Das, said on Wednesday that he would focus on strengthening the party from the grassroots to the provincial level and sort out various political challenges.
Das, who has replaced Shaktisinh Gohil at a time when the Congress performed poorly in the assembly polls and is being criticized by its ally RJD, is likely to visit Patna by January 11 or 12. He told TOI over the phone from Manipur, “I will stay there for a week and interact with the party leaders.”
Asked about the challenges ahead, Das replied, “I am a man of the field. Let me come to Bihar first so that I can meet the challenges. All members of the party have to be strongly motivated.”
Das, who hails from Odisha and is also the in-charge of Mizoram and Manipur, claimed that he would have no problem working in Bihar. “It is my favourite place of struggle and achievement. I have slept in different villages of Bihar in 1981-1982 during the land struggle movement. I have also stayed in Patna for over a year and worked with Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad and other leaders,” he added.
‘No legislator leaving party’: Congress Legislative Party leader Ajit Sharma on Wednesday said action would be taken against former MLA Bharat Singh for spreading rumours that 11 legislators were planning to leave the party. “He has no authority to give any statement on behalf of the Congress. When he was an MLA, he had changed parties seven to eight times. He is saying baseless things only to be in the limelight. I will ask the party high command to expel him,” Sharma said adding that not a single legislator was going anywhere.