Days after the RJD’s Bihar unit president Mangani Lal Mandal dared the Congress to snap ties with the Lalu Prasad-led party, the tension between the two key constituents of the Mahagathbandhan or INDIA bloc continues to be on the rise.
The ties between the RJD and the Congress have been strained in the wake of the Opposition alliance’s debacle in the recent state Assembly elections, which saw the incumbent NDA, led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, registering a landslide victory, winning 202 of 243 seats as against the Mahagathbandhan’s 35. The poll outcome triggered a blame game between the two allies.
The growing unease in the state Congress over its relationship with the RJD was also seen during its meeting in Patna Monday, which was held to review the election results. At the meeting, 27 of the 38 District Congress Committee (DCC) presidents flagged various reasons for the party’s poll rout in the presence of All India Congress Committee (AICC)’s Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru and state party chief Rajesh Ram. The Congress could win just 6 seats after contesting 61, while the RJD got 25 seats of 143 seats it contested.
After the meeting, Ram said that the Congress’s ties with RJD was just “electoral” and that his party’s immediate priority is to strengthen its organisation in the state. Ram lost his own Kutumba seat in Aurangabad in the election.
Last week, the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader in the previous Assembly, Shakeel Ahmad Khan, said most of the Congress candidates believed that the party would have done better if had not tied up with the RJD. Shakeel also could not retain his Kadwa constituency in Katihar in the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region.
Amid the RJD’s bid to target the Congress for the poor electoral show, state Congress spokesperson Asit Nath Tiwari had earlier said, “If Congress is not important, why does RJD align with us for polls?”
Following these remarks from the Congress camp, Mangani Lal Mandal said, “If the Congress wants to go it alone, it should do so by all means. It will get to know its worth (aukaat).” He also claimed that the Congress was a “spent force” in Bihar and that the RJD should be credited for whatever votes it could garner. He also said the RJD has been putting up with the Congress’s
“unreasonable demands” in seat-sharing in election after election.
At the Monday meeting, 27 DCC chiefs, in four groups, spelt out their views on the reasons for the party getting reduced to six seats from 19 in the 2020 polls.
Sources said most of the DCC presidents narrowed down these reasons to four points — the Congress organisation not having its presence in most polling booths and also not appointing its Booth Level Agents (BLAs) in many areas; lack of cooperation from the RJD; EBC Sahani (Mallah) votes not getting transferred to them despite the projection of Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani as the Mahagathbandhan’s deputy CM face; and the Nitish Kumar government’s pre-election welfare doles including the distribution of Rs 10,000 each to 1.41 crore prospective women entrepreneurs under the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana (MMRY).
A Congress leader, who attended the review meeting, told The Indian Express: “It was both a review and a meeting to work out a way forward. There was demand of setting up panchayat and block committees to strengthen the organisation. The leaders were also asked to galvanise support for the party’s national-level protest against vote theft and the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Delhi on December 14.”
Rajesh Ram said: “Our alliance with RJD was electoral. Since no election is due in near future, the question of alliance is irrelevant. Our brief is to strengthen the organisation”.
Asit Nath Tiwari echoed Ram’s views, saying “We have to get back to the drawing board and work towards plugging loopholes. We need our booth level presence. We need BLAs for all booths.”
Asked about the rumblings in the Mahagathbandhan, Tiwari said: “Senior leaders in the alliance would iron it out if there is any acrimony.”
RJD national spokesperson Subodh Kumar Mehta said: “INDIA bloc was formed with broader goals. It is natural to hear voices of anxiety after such defeats. We would not go into who is saying what. We need to stay calm.”
Asked about the Congress’ allegations of the RJD playing foul in some constituencies, Mehta sought to sidestep the question, saying “there could be some local level issues”.