Ex-Jharkhand Congress chief Ajoy Kumar rejoins party a year after quitting, ditches AAP

In a classic case of 'ghar waapasi', ex-Jharkhand Congress chief Dr. Ajoy Kumar has rejoined the party. Taking to Twitter, Kumar claimed that 'driven by his conscience' he decided to come back to Congress today. Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal confirmed that party chief Sonia Gandhi has allowed his rejoining. Kumar had left Congress after the party's Lok Sabha drubbing and joined AAP a month later.

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Ex-Jharkhand Congress chief rejoins party

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Kumar joins AAP

Reports state that taking responsibility for the poor performance of the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls in Jharkhand, Kumar resigned from his post. Reports state that after the loss, Congress was split into two camps - one supporting Kumar, one supporting former state minister Subodh Kant Sahay. Both camps allegedly clashed with each other, which letter led to a high-level meeting in Delhi with Congress top brass. Kumar had levied allegations against Sahay, claiming that Sahay had tried to get poll tickets for family members for the Jharkhand polls held in December.

After a bitter faceoff, Kumar quit Congress in August 2019 and joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the presence of Dy CM Manish Sisodia in September 2019. Kumar is a  former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer  Meanwhile, Congress along with its ally - Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) defeated the BJP, ushering Hemant Soren's first term as Chief Minister. The BJP was able to win only 25 seats, while the Congress won 16 seats and JMM won 25 seats.

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Congress squashes dissent

Recently, quashing all internal dissent, Congress Working Committee (CWC) on  August 25,  retained Sonia Gandhi as party chief till elections are called for in the next AICC meeting. Moreover, it passed a resolution strengthening the Gandhis' leadership and not allowing anyone to undermine the party or the Gandhis (Rahul and Sonia). 23 senior leaders sought 'structural changes', internal election to the CWC even at state levels, the formation of an Independent Election Authority, and institutional leadership mechanism, full-time leadership at the helm at the party.  The 23 signatories include Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Rajender Kaur Bhattal, M. Veerappa Moily, Prithviraj Chavan, P.J. Kurian, Ajay Singh, Renuka Chaudhary, and Milind Deora -  belonging from the Congress' 'old guard ' and the 'young guard' (i.e Rahul Gandhi supporters). 

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