Congress’s threat that it will contest all the 40 seats in Bihar in the next Lok Sabha elections doesn’t seem to have worried the RJD. The alliance between the two parties has soured after the RJD fielded its own candidate in the bypoll in Kusheshwar Asthan, a seat from where the Congress had contested in the 2020 Assembly polls.
Reacting to the Congress’s threat, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav wondered if the national party was demanding more seats only to lose them.
The Congress responded to the RJD’s move by fielding its own candidates in both Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur, which go to bypolls on October 30. But the grand old party found itself isolated after the Left-wing factions extended their support to the RJD, prompting AICC general secretary in-charge of Bihar Bhakta Charan Das to announce that his party was quitting the Grand Alliance.
‘Congress defeated the alliance’
The RJD leadership has been openly alleging that Tejashwi Yadav missed the chief minister’s chair because of the Congress’s performance in the Assembly polls. They believe that the Congress was given more seats than it deserved. Though all other allies in the Grand Alliance won more than half of the seats they had contested in, the Congress could secure only 19 of the 70 seats. The internal strife over seat sharing had led to the exit of two parties from the alliance—Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha and Mukesh Sahani’s Vikassheel Insaan Party. The RJD leaders believe that if they had managed to retain these parties in the alliance by giving them a few more seats, Tejashwi Yadav would have been the chief minister.
Prashant Kishor’s tips
Poll strategist Prashant Kishor has been trying to rejuvenate the Congress party in Bihar. Kanhaiya Kumar's switch from the CPI to the Congress camp was part of this effort. Kishor hopes Kumar can become the face of the Congress in Bihar and the party can reclaim the support of the Bhumihar community.
In Bihar politics, Kumar is what Tejashwi Yadav is to RJD and Chirag Paswan is to Lok Janshakti Party leader. It is believed that the RJD decided not to leave the bypoll seat for the Congress after a section of Congress leaders termed Kumar as the future chief minister. The RJD has been sceptical about Kumar's entry into the Congress.
Kishor has also found a way to address the absence of a popular Yadav face in the Congress. Jan Adhikar Party leader Pappu Yadav will join the party in November. Pappu Yadav’s wife Ranjeet Ranjan is an AICC secretary and a former MP. The Congress high command hopes the Kumar-Pappu Yadav combine will rebuild the party in Bihar.
Patch-up likely
Cracks in the Grand Alliance are unlikely to last till the next Lok Sabha elections. Both the Congress and the RJD may join hands again. The RJD’s established stand is that the Congress should be part of the opposition alliance to fight the BJP at the national level. Earlier, Tejashwi Yadav had strongly opposed the idea of forming an alliance of opposition parties excluding the Congress. He had even argued that any discussion on the opposition alliance should take into account the fact that in around 200 Lok Sabha seats, both the Congress and the BJP are in direct fight. In the national politics, the RJD is a trusted ally of the Congress as the Bihar party has not, at any point of time, joined hands with the BJP.
