PATNA: In a setback to the Congress in Bihar ahead of Lok Sabha polls, former state president Anil Sharma on Sunday quit the party, claiming that it was stuck in a "disastrous" partnership with the RJD.
Making the announcement at a press conference here, Sharma also voiced disgust over the recent induction, "with much fanfare", of controversial former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav.
He also took a dig at the opposition`s rally in New Delhi by saying that Congress was claiming that democracy was in danger but there was no democracy in the party itself. “Even Congress's duly elected national president cannot take any decision without the consent of Rahul Gandhi or his close aide KC Venugopal,” he alleged.
Sharma is the fourth former Bihar Congress president to have quit the party in nearly a decade.
Last time, Ashok Chaudhary had left the party and joined JD(U) in 2018.
Sharma said that he had joined Congress in 1985, holding organizational posts twice, as state general secretary and then as state president in four decades. He contended that he never aspired for a ticket or to become an MLC. He claimed that he had never explored possibilities in any other party before quitting the Congress.
Former Congress leader asserted that he was against a tie up with RJD even when he was the state party president. People hold us guilty for supporting the Jungle Raj of Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi, he remarked.
Sharma accused RJD of giving tickets to its candidates for the Lok Sabha election on monetary considerations and not taking into account the sucess factor.
Meanwhile, state Congress media cell chairman Rajesh Rathore attacked Sharma for trying to make 'a cowardly escape' and find 'an excuse' for falling at the feet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sharma is the fourth former state president to quit the party the latest being Ashok Choudhary who left Congress in 2018 and joined Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United). Before him, Ram Jatan Sinha had quit the party in 2015 following differences with some top leaders. Prior to Sinha, Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser had left Congress and later he joined Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party, which gave him Lok Sabha ticket from Khagaria. Kaiser represented Khagaria in Lok Sabha for two consecutive terms. He, however, denied that he would join other parties in near future. “I have no such plans,” he said in response to a media query.