New Delhi: Sadaqat Ashram, which headquarters Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC), on Monday, witnessed a pitched battle between two Congress factions one of which started chanting "Narendra Modi, Zindabad" slogans.

Acting state party president Kaukab Qadri had called a meeting of all 1240 delegates, MLAs and MLCs. However, to many district leaders' surprise, their names were missing from the list. They alleged Qadri of foul play.

Soon after, the supporters of Bhagalpur Congress leader Naseem Siddiqui attacked the Qadri supporters. A few of the party leaders were seen coming out of office in torn kurtas, suggesting there was a fistfight between the two factions. Amid the ensuing chaos, Naseem and his supporters shouted: "Narendra Modi, zindabad".

When asked why the group was praising Narendra Modi, Naseem said: "See, how decisions are taken in our party. This is also one of the reasons behind the rise of Narendra Modi. He is better than our leaders."

Meanwhile, Ashok Choudhary, who was recently removed from the post of state president, entered the party headquarters, facing stiff resistance from Qadri supporters. Choudhary alleged that names of delegates had been changed to manipulate the results of intra-organisation elections.

Ashok Choudhary alleged that Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) miscreants, who attacked them at the behest of national general secretary CP Joshi, were patronized in the party office. He left office with two of the 27 MLAs - Anand Shankar and Sanjay Tiwari - by his side.

The Congress party is facing a severe crisis ever since Nitish broke out of the Congress-RJD-JD (U) alliance and formed the government with the BJP. A few partly leaders had complained to the high command that Choudhary was conspiring to split the party. Eventually, CP Joshi, Party in charge of the state, removed Choudhary from the post on the orders of Sonia Gandhi.

Qadri was made the acting chief of the BPCC until new elections to be held next month.