Congress senses opportunity in Bihar, watching rift in ruling coalition

Congress is keeping a close eye on the swaying political pendulum in Bihar, reports ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri

New Delhi:The Congress on Monday said it was watching the political developments in the ruling JDU-BJP alliance in Bihar and senses an opportunity in the state to join hands with the former ally again. “Yes, there is an opportunity there,” AICC secretary in charge of Bihar Ajay Kapoor told ETV Bharat. In 2015, the JD-U had joined hands with the RJD and the Congress to contest the assembly polls and formed a coalition government headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Nitish later ditched the alliance but retained the top government post with the support of the BJP. RJD founder Lalu Prasad’s son Tejaswi Yadav was Nitish Kumar’s deputy in the coalition government and had been targeting the chief minister on various issues. Of late, there have been reports of an alleged rift between the ruling JDU-BJP coalition, giving hope to the grand old party and the RJD, which are watching the developments in Bihar closely.

There are also murmurs in Delhi’s political circles that Nitish Kumar had a word with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, following which a meeting of the party MLAs has been called in Patna in the evening. Though Kapoor said “there will be no problem in forming an alliance with the JDU if it breaks away from the BJP”, a section of the state leaders had been wary of welcoming Nitish Kumar.

“Afterall, the 2015 poll mandate was for the JDU-RJD-Congress alliance. We are watching the situation but the final decision in the matter would be taken by Soniaji,” said Kapoor. Party insiders said that joining hands with Nitish again may involve some moral issues but mostly realpolitik takes precedence in such situations.

They further said though there may be an opportunity for the Congress, the opposition should also be prepared for a repeat of Maharashtra, where Shiv Sena rebel Eknath Shinde became chief minister with support of BJP, in Bihar. In the 2020 polls, the Congress had 19/243 seats in the Bihar assembly against 75 of Rashtriya Janata Dal. In 2019, the grand old party had just 1/40 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The Congress is not very strong in Bihar where the opposition charge is mostly led by the leader of the opposition Tejaswi Yadav. Recently, the Congress asked state unit chief MM Jha to resign but has not been able to announce his replacement. AICC in charge of Bihar Bhakta Charan Das had sent a list of names for the revamped state unit but it did not find favour with the local leaders.

Sources said Das had suggested the name of veteran Rajesh Ram as state unit chief, along with Kumar Ashish, Brajesh Pandey, Qaiser Khan, Meenat Rehmani, Amita Bhushan and Pravin Kushwaha as working presidents. He had also suggested several names for vice president’s post. The Congress had also planned a Gandhi yatra in the state but had to cancel it at the eleventh hour due to lack of coordination among the various teams.