Javaid Naikoo
SRINAGAR, Feb 20: Senior Congress workers owing allegiance to Ghulam Nabi Azad flew to Delhi today to meet Congress high command and register their protest on new office bearers nominated by Soz.
As the Congress high command announced 66 new office bearers for its Jammu and Kashmir unit including vice presidents, general secretaries, executive members, organizing secretaries and lower grade secretaries, the senior workers have expressed serious reservations.
They workers especially those owing allegiance to Azad feel betrayed. "The new comers have been preferred over us and this is not fair," some of them were heard saying.
The new entrants are close to Soz, Taj, Monga and Vakil.
The 66 new office bearers for Jammu and Kashmir unit include 12 new vice presidents, 25 general secretaries, 52 executive members, 27 organising secretaries and 52 other lower grade secretaries.
However, according to the sources, list of office bearers which include Mohammad Muzaffar Paray, Thakur Hari Singh, Mula Ram, Bashir Ahmed Magray, Janak Raj Gupta, Mohammad Haider Sheikh, Prem Sagar Aziz, Mohammad Anwar Bhat, Abdul Gani Vakil, Suman Bhagat, Thaur Puran Singh, Treasurer Krishan Kumar Amla, among the general secretaries R.S Chib, Vinod Sharma, Mohammad Abdullah Nadaf, Mohammad Amin Bhat, Hans Raj Bhagat, Arvind Singh Micky, Maheshwar Singh Manhas, Haji Nisar Ali, Thakur Puran Singh, Shah Mohd Chowdhary, Vinod Mishra, Chuni Lal Bhat, Kanta Andotra, G.N. Mir, Shameema Raina, Farooq Abdrabi, Thakur Balwan Singh, Shoaib Nabi Lone, Vikram Malhotra, Darshan Raina, Abdul Rashid, Mahbood Ilahi, Chowdry Zafarulla, Advocate Abdul Rashid, Thakur Manmohan, is merely selection of recommended faces and is restricted to few districts of Jammu and Kashmir only. Some of the senior workers which include Surinder Singh Chani, Haji Abdul Rasheed Dar, Amreena Badar and similar other renowned faces of State Congress of Srinagar, Ganderbal, Budgam, Shopian, who were on posts of general secretaries and vice presidents in previous cadre have been dropped deliberately as these workers according to the sources follow the Azad lobby.
The workers are expected to meet vice president Rahul Gandhi tomorrow in this regard.
If proper action is not taken, sources believe, the leaders may desert the party like Ishafaq Jabar of Ganderbal constituency and Abdul Majeed Padder of Noorabad constituency who in previous Assembly elections have fetched good number of votes and similar other faces from Rajouri and Chinab areas joined People’s Democratic Party only because of ongoing favoritism and internal bickering within State Congress leadership. |
