Congress' star campaigners give Bihar poll campaign a miss

The Congress, which had entered the fray in the Bihar assembly election 2020, failed to put up a strong campaign on account of the alleged indifference of its top party leaders. Though the party had released a list of star campaigners for Bihar, all of them kept away from the campaign.

Patna: Bihar election fever has reached its peak with the third phase of polling due on November 7, with just a couple of days left before campaigning for this crucial phase comes to an end.

While former party president Rahul Gandhi has addressed eight public meetings so far, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, acting president Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot remain conspicuously absent from the campaign.

Ahead of its Bihar poll campaign, the Congress party had released a list of 30-star campaigners, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Manmohan Singh, Priyanka Gandhi and Ashok Gehlot. But, none came to Bihar throughout all the three phases of the polling.

Priyanka remained confined to UP

The party had included Priyanka Gandhi’s name among the star campaigners with a view to attracting the youth and all political parties had given importance to the young voters. Priyanka Gandhi was selected as star campaigner for Bihar to match the youth leaders Tejashvi Yadav of RJD and Chirag Paswan of LJP. But, Priyanka never came to Bihar throughout all the three phases of the polling.

Priyanka restricted her political actions to Uttar Pradesh where she took to streets on several burning issues such as the problems of farmers of Sonbhadra. She was not seen any of the political rallies in Bihar.

Sonia, Manmohan, Gehlot too absent

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party’s acting president Sonia Gandhi and political strategist Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot too were listed as star campaigners during the Bihar elections. However, all of them did not even bother to come to Bihar to the campaign.

Sonia Gandhi did issue an appeal to the voters of Bihar through a message. Manmohan Singh did not even care to issue any such appeal. He did not go to Bihar for not keeping well while the party had named his as one of the star campaigners just for namesake. Ashok Gehlot is considered Chanakya, a party strategist. He is credited for the electoral victory in Maharashtra. However, he seems to have realized that he would not be effective in Bihar. Perhaps his spat with Sachin Pilot too could have an adverse effect.

Absence of commander in the battle of ballots

For the grand alliance, Rahul Gandhi and Tejashvi Yadav took full charge of the campaign. Tejashvi not only campaigned for his party candidates but also shared the podium with Rahul Gandhi in election rallies.

However, Congress candidates did not get as much support from their star campaigners as was required. This, when the Congress had put up its candidates on a large number of seats after a long gap.

With the poll alliance with the RJD and the Left parties, Congress had the opportunity to expand its political base in Bihar.

However, its party candidates missed the support of top Congress leaders during their election campaign. Now, only the election results on November 10 will show how the Congress candidates fare.