Rahul Gandhi sideline Bihar Cong chief Ashok Choudhary !

Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi : Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is meeting party MLAs from Bihar for the second consecutive day today in Delhi to prevent rebellion in its Bihar unit. As Rahul Gandhi meets legislators from Bihar from his party , there’s an elephant in the room – the absence of Ashok Choudhary who heads the Congress in Bihar.
Congress Legislature Party leader Sadanand Singh, who skipped yesterday’s interaction with Rahul Gandhi citing personal reasons, has gone to the national capital to meet the party vice-president.
Senior Congress MLAs like Ashok Kumar, Vijay Shankar Dubey and others are also closeted with Rahul Gandhi for the second consecutive day today to ward off the crisis in teh state unit.
“I’m not sure why I am being sidelined like this,” Mr Choudhary said. Speaking to ndtv.com in Patna, he described himself  as hurt at not being invited to the talks that hope to stave off a split in the Congress, increasingly dissolute since it found itself laid off from running the state of Bihar by former ally and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in July.
Mr Choudhary, 49, may not have been asked to come to Delhi by Mr Gandhi, but he was certainly a hot topic with the Congress boss reportedly asking a group of 10 legislators what they make of him and whether he should be removed as President of the Bihar Congress, a position he has held for four years.
Ashok Choudhary was not invited  to Rahul Gandhi’s meeting on Bihar.
Sources say that several of the legislators who met with Mr Gandhi leapt to Mr Choudhary’s defense, attributing the party’s collection of 27 seats in the last election to his leadership. But reports of Mr Choudhary’s exasperation with the top of the Congress pyramid in Delhi have been proliferating and there are enough Congress legislators in Bihar who in private vouch for his interest in exiting the party.
The president of Congress’ Bihar unit, Ashok Choudhary, today accused “some” AICC leaders of fuelling rebellion against him with the “false propaganda” that he was making attempts to split the party.
“Some AICC leaders are behind the crisis in the Congress in Bihar…they are fuelling rebellion against me by alleging that I am making attempts to break the party in favour of Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) to replace me from PCC president’s post with their favourite,” Ashok Choudhary told.
He, however, did not identify anyone but said “they would be unmasked very soon”.
The PCC chief did not go to Delhi on being summoned by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for a meeting yesterday to stem the crisis in Bihar arising after the collapse of the Grand Alliance.
The Congress has 27 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly.
“I did not go to Delhi due to personal reasons,” Choudhary said.
He claimed that “from the beginning, forces on behalf of some AICC leaders are working against me. First they mooted the issue of ‘one man, one post’ against me. I told the party leadership that I am ready to give up ministerial post in favour of the Congress state chief.
“Now that ministership has gone and I am left with only the post of PCC chief, they have spun lies against me that I am making attempts to trigger split in favour of Nitish Kumar’s JD(U).”
Reiterating his dedication for the party, Choudhary, whose father Mahavir Choudhary was a veteran Congress leader in Bihar hailing from dalit background, said “I joined NSUI in student days and, over the past 25 years, I have been working to strengthen the party in Bihar…. I would have to struggle for another 15 years to explain that I did not make any attempt to split the party.”