The Hindu : National : Sushila Kerketta, new Jharkhand Congress chief

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 23, 2004

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National

Sushila Kerketta, new Jharkhand Congress chief

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 22. The Congress today appointed a senior tribal leader and Khuntia MP, Sushila Kerketta, as the new chief of the Jharkhand unit in place of Thomas Hansda.

This is the first change the party has made in the election-bound States. Assembly polls are due in Jharkhand, Bihar and Haryana in February next. Over the past few weeks, reports of change of guard in these three States have surfaced.

Ms. Kerketta, who was a Cabinet Minister in Bihar between 1985 and 1990, was also the Deputy Leader of Opposition in the undivided Bihar. Hailing from a tribal district, Ms. Kerketta's appointment brings to close a factional tussle in the State unit that took a turn for the worse recently.

Announcing the appointment, the Congress Working Committee member, Harikesh Bahadur, who is in charge of the party affairs of the State said the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, cleared Ms. Kerketta's name after Mr. Hansda put in his papers owing to poor health.

The AICC secretary, R.P.N. Singh, was present at the press conference where the announcement was made.

Besides putting in a new party chief, the AICC also appointed seven vice presidents. The new appointees include Pradeep Balmuchu (Tribal), Tilakdhari Singh (Bhumiar), Krishnanand Jha (Brahmin), P.N. Singh (Rajput), Majoor Ahmed Ansari (Muslim), Ishwari Paswan (Scheduled Caste) and Awadh Bihari Singh (Other Backward Caste). He said the Congress Legislature Party would soon elect a new leader in place of Furkan Ansari, who has been elected to the Lok Sabha. Mr. Balmuchu was among those aspiring to head the State unit as was the Union Minister, Subodh Kant Sahay.

However, the Congress preferred to opt for a woman tribal leader in a State where the party contested the last Lok Sabha elections with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.

Ms. Kerketta told correspondents that her primary task was to carry the entire party together and that the main plank against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government would be corruption and starvation deaths among tribals.

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