OPINION | Brewing Rebellion, Tendency to Piggyback on RJD Could Cost Congress Dear in Bihar

Patna: The infighting between self-seeking state Congress leaders and party’s lackadaisical approach towards a winning strategy may impair its poll prospects in Bihar.

A recent rebellion by senior Congress leader and former union minister Shakeel Ahmad, who filed his nomination as an independent candidate from Madhubani Lok Sabha seat, has exposed chinks in Congress’ armour. It also points at incongruities in the selection of seats and the lack of a winning poll strategy in the politically sensitive and caste-ridden Bihar.

The party seems to have taken up the crucial Lok Sabha polls in a half-hearted manner and literally succumbed to the pressure of its allies — Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Rashtriya Loktantrik Samata Party (RLSP), Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) — and leaders imported from other parties.

Outsiders handled the party affairs and the seat-sharing exercise to suit their personal interests, ignoring party’s larger political interests. It is reflected in decisions such as the son of Bihar Congress’s campaign committee chairman, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, is fighting as RLSP candidate from East Chmaparan seat against union minister Radha Mohan Singh, while Poonam Sinha, wife of Patna Saheb candidate Shatrughan Sinha, is SP-BSP candidate against BJP leader Rajnath Singh from Lucknow.

Initially, the Congress stuck to its demand of 20 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar but in the end conceded on merely nine seats, as the RJD started behaving like a big-brother seeking lion’s share in seats. Leaders like Akhilesh Prasad Singh, who joined the party recently, served the interests of the RJD.

Of the nine seats, elections in three Congress quota seats —Kishanganj, Katihar and Purnia — have already been held and party candidates are reported to be in the reckoning because of heavy concentration of Muslim population — varying from 35 to 70 per cent — in this region. But it is not yet clear whether they could garner the votes of non-Muslims who are considered to be supporters of other grand alliance partners.

Elections in the remaining six Congress quota seats — Valmikinagar, Samastipur, Supaul, Munger, Patna Saheb and Sasaram — will be held in the next five phases. But the overall scenario in these constituencies is quite different as all seats have predominant Hindu population, whose voting preference is largely guided by caste sentiments.

Senior Congress leaders in Bihar attribute this scenario to a lack of seamless poll strategy, disenchantment of old and committed party leaders from campaigning, and dominance of ‘outsiders’ in selection of candidates as well as drafting of poll strategy. They feel that the Congress’s strategy, right from the beginning, has been to piggyback on the RJD, whose sole leader Lalu Prasad Yadav is undergoing jail term in corruption cases.

Of the nine Congress candidates, five have been imported from other parties, leaving dedicated party aspirants fuming and fretting. If actor and BJP sitting MP Shatrughan Sinha has been fielded from Patna Saheb, Neelam Singh, wife of don-turned-MLA Ananat Singh, has been drafted from Munger. Former BJP MP Pappu Singh has got ticket from Purnia, NCP sitting MP Tariq Anwar from Katihar and greenhorn Shashwat Pandey from Valmikinagar.

The party’s own candidates on other four seats include former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar from Sasaram, sitting MP Ranjit Ranjan from Supaul, party MLA Ashok Ram from Samastipur and another party MLA Muhammad Javed from Kishanganj.

“The Congress never tried to revive its old Upper Caste-Muslim-Dalit combination. It also did not try to make a dent into the extremely backward caste (EBC) bloc, which has a sizeable population spread over the length and breadth of Bihar. Instead, some imported leaders from RJD, who were given the overall command of electioneering, convinced the central party leadership that an alliance with RJD alone can ensure maximum number of seats in Bihar,” said senior leader Binod Sharma, who recently quit the party to join the BJP.

In fact, the Congress in Bihar began its poll preparations with search for an acceptable state president but it was quite delayed due to factional politics. Just before the poll bugle was sounded, the Congress leadership appointed Madan Mohan Jha, a Maithil Brahmin, as state president and Akhilesh Prasad Singh from the powerful Bhumihar caste as head of the poll campaign committee, besides legislature of party leader Sadanand Singh, a Kurmi by caste, and others.

The poll campaign committee inordinately delayed its decision on selection of Congress quota seats and their candidates. Due to undue pressure of allies, the Congress relinquished its claim on Darbhanga, Madhubani and East Champaran seats for the RJD, VIP and RLSP respectively. “The Madhubani seat was given to the VIP to deny ticket to Shakeel Ahmad, while the East Champaran was given to the RLSP as part of a bargain with its leader Upendra Kushwaha to accommodate Akhilesh Prasad Singh’s son Akash Singh,” Sharma said.

When Rahul Gandhi held his first election rally in Patna in February, it was expected that the Congress would go on a revival path and the hitherto dormant party leaders would bounce back with vim and vitality.

The rally at the historic Gandhi Maidan was fairly successful by all yardsticks, sending across a message that the party would now play a major political role in the 2019 elections as an equal partner of its major ally — the RJD led by Lalu Prasad Yadav.

The subsequent camaraderie and mingling between Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, the face of RJD in the absence of the incarcerated Lalu, was topic of discussion in the political circles, giving an impression that Congress and RJD together, as equal partners, would stop the resurgence of BJP-JDU-LJP combine in Bihar.

The political scenario then was also conducive for the Congress-RJD combine as BJP graph was on a slide due to myriads of disconcerting issues like Rafale, demonetisation et al. The BJP-baiters saw a ray of hope in this political formulation with Congress in the lead.

But intra-party bickering for seats among allies spoilt the game, sending across a negative message to the electorate. At the same time, the dissension within the state Congress has left the genuine party workers dejected and they have gone into hibernation once again, at least in Bihar.

(Author is a senior journalist. Views are personal)