Former top cop Oraon is Jharkhand Congress chief

Congress on Monday appointed former top cop Rameshwar Oraon to succeed another police officer-turned-politician Ajoy Kumar as the president of its Jharkhand unit.

The 72-year-old Oraon will be assisted by five working presidents, in a bid to pacify the warring factions and ensure representation to prominent castes and communities ahead of the Assembly elections expected to be held in October.

Former minister Keshav Mahto Kamlesh from the Kurmi community, Rajesh Thakur (Bhumihar), Manas Sinha (Kayastha), Irfan Ansari (Muslim) and former state NSUI chief Sanjay Paswan (Dalit) will be the five working presidents of the Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee.

Congress quickly moved into election-mode by announcing a six-member screening committee for the Jharkhand Assembly elections headed by Chhattisgarh Minister T S Singhdeo. Lok Sabha member Kodikunnil Suresh, AICC Secretary Saleem Ahmed, AICC in-charge R P N Singh, Oraon and CLP leader Alamgir Alam will be the members of the screening committee.

After the Lok Sabha debacle, differences in the state unit, particularly between Kumar and former Union minister Subodhkant Sahay spilled on to the streets with rival factions coming to blows.

Earlier this month, Kumar had shot off his resignation letter to the then Congress President Rahul Gandhi, hitting out at his colleagues in the Jharkhand Congress.

“Their only intention is to grab power, sell tickets or collect money in the name of elections. As a proud Indian and one of the youngest winners of the police gallantry award and having wiped the mafia in Jamshedpur. I can confidently say that the worst criminals look better than some of my colleagues,” Kumar had said in the letter.

A doctor by training, Mangaluru-born Kumar joined the IPS in 1986 and shot to fame as the Superintendent of Police of Jamshedpur, then in Bihar. After a 10-year stint in IPS, Kumar quit the service to join the Tata Group before taking the political plunge in 2011.

A 1972 batch IPS officer, Oraon was the Additional Director General of Police in Jharkhand. He quit the police service to join politics in 2004 and served as a union minister in the UPA-I government. He was later appointed as the Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.