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| After ‘ceasefire’, Congress sends Wani to West Bengal on key assignment | | |  Sanjay Pandita
Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 7: Just three days after the Congress high command brokered a temporary ceasefire between rival factions within the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC), dissident leader and former JKPCC president Vikar Rasool Wani has been assigned another important organisational responsibility outside the Union Territory.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary K C Venugopal has appointed Wani as an AICC observer for the party’s Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan in West Bengal, a move being viewed within Congress circles as an attempt by the high command to keep the former JKPCC chief away from Jammu and Kashmir and prevent a fresh escalation of factional tensions.
Wani himself announced the new assignment on social media, thanking the party leadership for entrusting him with the responsibility.
“Thanks to my leadership for entrusting me with the new responsibility of Observer for West Bengal. After successfully completing my duties in Rajasthan, Punjab, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, I am honoured to take on this new assignment,” he said in his post.
The latest appointment comes shortly after the high command intervened to broker a truce between the two rival camps of the JKPCC, which have been engaged in a prolonged internal confrontation.
Party insiders believe that assigning Wani organisational responsibilities outside J&K could be part of the high command’s broader strategy to keep him occupied outside the Union Territory at a time when the leadership is attempting to restore peace and discipline within the state unit.
The latest assignment is not Wani’s first responsibility outside J&K. On March 17, Venugopal had appointed him as an AICC observer for the Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan in Delhi. He had earlier performed similar organisational duties in Rajasthan, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, according to his social media post.
‘Assigning Wani organisational responsibilities outside J&K could be part of the high command’s broader strategy to keep him occupied outside the UT at a time when the leadership is attempting to restore peace and discipline within the state unit.”
Since then, differences between the two camps have repeatedly surfaced, with Wani reportedly mobilising a section of party leaders and workers against the present leadership.
The prolonged factionalism had become a major challenge for the Congress leadership in Jammu and Kashmir, prompting the central leadership to intervene.
As reported earlier, the Congress high command stepped in three days ago to broker a ceasefire between the rival factions of the JKPCC, bringing temporary respite to a party that has been grappling with prolonged internal dissent.
Highly placed party sources said AICC General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal played a key role in bringing the rival camps to the negotiating table during a meeting in New Delhi.
The meeting was also attended by AICC General Secretary in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir Dr Syed Naseer Hussain, AICC secretaries and senior Congress leaders from the Union Territory.
The intervention helped the party project an image of unity, but questions remain over the durability of the truce.
“The real question is not whether a ceasefire has been achieved, but how long it will hold,” a senior Congress leader said, maintaining that the deep-rooted differences between the rival camps have not been fully resolved.
Against this backdrop, Wani’s fresh assignment outside J&K is being seen by party insiders as a calculated move by the high command to keep one of the key dissenting voices away from the Union Territory while it attempts to consolidate the fragile peace within the J&K Congress. |
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