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| Soz consolidates position, his detractors bite dust | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 30: Detractors and political rivals of Saifudin Soz may be busy in finding faults with his ways of working, but leaving them behind, the PCC president has inch by inch consolidated his position by dint of his "organisational capacity and hard work".
Even as a strong lobby worked against him within the Congress, he dismissed his rivals as a group of few "disgruntled" elements and not a parallel faction, as they would like to put it.
The most important for him is the backing of the party command which made him more confidant because of which he remanied undeterred by the infighting and internal bickerings.
Speaking to The Early Times here few days back, he looked assertive when he said he did not want the Congress to remain the 'B-team' of regional parties like the NC and the PDP as it had the potential to emerge as the front-runner in the state politics.
Soz said the Congress had an immense potential and there were many takers of its secular ideology in all three regions of the state. The need was to channelise the energies in the right direction, he added.
He said his travels and meetings with workers across the state as PCC chief might have hurt some of those who had benefited from the earlier stagnation, especially in the valley.
The PCC president said "some" people had a vested interest in showing the party leadership in a poor light. Most of them were those who were either denied ministerial berths or party posts, he added.
He said if the Congress was to emerge stronger, the disgruntled factions would have to be reined in. It was only because of the infighting that the party was reduced to three seats in the Valley, he added.
The anti-Soz leaders are those who are believed to be close to union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. MLC Ravinder Sharma, who became more active in Congress after he joined a national newspaper as a stringer about eight years back, is also a Azad-loyalist.
An advocate by profession, Ravinder, who had at one time made up his mind to contest elections as an independent candidate from Nowshehra after the denial of ticket to him, had changed his mind on Azad's intervention. He got the "reward" later when Azad made him MLC.
Deputy chief minister Tara Chand, who had an army of Congress leaders against him because of varied reasons, too enjoys tacit backing of Azad. He had gone to the extent of holding parallel meetings, as seen on the death anniversary of Indira Gandhi. Even the advertisements issued by him did not have any reference to Soz.R&B minister G M Saroori is another Azad loyalist. Saroori was made minister, but seniormost Congress leader Mohammad Sharief Niaz, who earlier held the power portfolio, was dropped from the cabinet, much to the surprise of several PCC leaders.
Soz, however, would not name his detractors or blame Azad for any act of indiscipline in the party. He said the high command should act where there were proved cases of indiscipline.
He said as party's policies were acceptable to the people of the state, the leadership should make every possible effort to benefit from it.
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