Imphal, November 16: After the Communist Party of India, another ally has slammed the internal squabbling in the Congress.

Many leaders of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, which has three legislators and was the first to announce its support to the Congress led Government after the last elections, described the infighting as 'embarrassing and ugly'' for its partners and demanded prompt directives from Congress President Sonia Gandhi to end the crisis.

RJD has so far resisted taking up the Congress infighting at the official plank as a friendly gesture, its leaders claimed.

It has also no plan to pull out of the pact with the Congress as of now.

Neither does it aspire to go public with its condemnation or support for any faction in the Congress, they asserted.

On the contrary, party leaders did not hide the feeling that a leadership change would not leave the RJD heart broken.

Even now the party is livid at Ibobi, for his alleged role in overriding its' high command instruction to include one RJD nominee in the Ministry.

Then, came the big snub, the RJD was never invited to the SPF Steering Committee despite courting the party legislators and ushering them to the Treasury bench.

The anti-Ibobi feeling is reaching a crescendo and discernible in their remarks.

Ningombam Ibohal Meitei, party general secretary said, "We would like to assume that all is well inside the Congress keeping faith on the fervent dismissal by some Ministers, but the frantic attempts to undermine the prowess of the dissident Congress MLAs suggested that the current leadership is besieged with uncertainty and confusion.

Ideally, the RJD would like to sit out of discord, as their 'family affair', but it is taking a toll on administrative works and maintenance of law and order.

Now, the matter would go up for debate at the next work committee meeting, after new members of the committee are officially inducted".

Lilong legislator Md Helaluddin Khan added, "It is time the chief minister go for a self-retrospection on his style of functioning that has aggrieved his partymen so much, he said.

Instead of questioning the numbers of the rebels he should be responding to the corruption and mismanage-ment charges with earnestness.

The dissidents may or may not possess the strength, but on the legitimacy of charges of bad performance Ibobi may have to face the music".

Md Helaluddin believed that the dissidents have the moral upper ground and spectre of the Meghalaya Congress could haunt the state Congress.

He praised the rebels' wisdom in nominating N Devendra, who was not among the signatories, for the chief ministerial post.

The politically astute move manifested clearly that the dissidence was not motivated by sheer personal greed for power but real concern for the well being of Manipur.

Devendra has a knack for financial management and above all an unblemished political career.

His experience and political acumen would make him a good chief minister, he stated about his former Congress colleague.

He warned that the Congress could land itself in a mess if correct decision are not made at the appropriate time and if the dissidence report on the performance of the Ibobi Government is ignored.

" The relinquishment of the minister post by president G Gaikhangam was an bad omen that Ibobi had missed.

If Gaikhangam's loses his patience over repeated evasion of the current issues, he may go for radical steps which would be the most destructive to the party', the former Congressmen warned.

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