After the political turmoil prevailing in Bihar with the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar breaking up the grand alliance with RJD–Congress and joining hands with the foes turned friends and forming the new government in the state in alliance with BJP, the political equation in the state is likely to undergo another major change.
Since Nitish Kumar has formed alliance with BJP, first the JD(U) witnessed a split in the party where one of the founding member and former President of the party Sharad Yadav rebelled against Nitish Kumar and formed another faction with the help of the members supporting him and now another split is possible in Congress in Bihar. Nitish Kumar broke up the grand alliance on the grounds of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his son and former Deputy Minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav were alleged with corruption charges against them. The Chief Minister, holding the image of Mr Clean and following the principle of zero tolerance against corruption broke up the mahagathbandhan.
Following the changes in the political parties now Congress is also seeking a break up with the RJD. The Congress MLAs are upset with the high command for supporting the RJD and not taking any actions against the corrupt leaders due to which they lost the power in Bihar. In an attempt to keep the unity among the members the high command is taking some initiatives. Just after Rahul Gandhi returned from his Gujarat tour where he began the election campaign n the poll bound state, he called all the 27 MLAs of Bihar Congress to discuss the issue.
Out of the 27 MLAs who met Rahul Gandhi at his residence on Thursday as many as 19 of them urged the party Vice President to break the alliance with RJD, if not permanently, then at least for the time being. 19 MLAs is a big number to split the Congress in Bihar. The party needs a majority of two third of the members to split the party that is 18 MLAs.
Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Ashok Chaudhary meanwhile has alleged the Congress High Command Sonia Gandhi to deliberately try to remove him as chief of the state unit. While the 27 MLAs were called by Rahul Gandhi, he skipped the meeting citing prior engagement. In his statement to the press, Ashok said that “I met Sonia and Rahul twice after Bihar CM Nitish Kumar dumped the Grand Alliance. As I had some personal engagements, I could not attend the meeting.” He said he will be meeting Sonia and Rahul in a few days.
It is being assumed that currently, Ashok has the support of 14 Congress MLAs and four MLCs in Bihar, as per the required number to split the party he needs just four more MLAs to support him. It is also believed that Bihar CLP leader Sadanand Singh and Ashok Chaudhary share good relations with the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. It may be a tactful play by the JD(U) to create a rift within Congress and lure its members o join hands with the party led by Nitish Kumar.
However denying the rumours of a split in Congress Bihar, the party spokesperson Premchandra Mishra said “JD(U)’s efforts to engineer a split in the party have been futile, they (Chaudhary and Singh) had got the support of 14 MLAs and four MLCs for crossing over to JD(U). But three have withdrawn their names, and the matter has been conveyed to the party brass.”
During the meeting of Bihar MLAs with Rahul Gandhi, they alleged the RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav to be unfaithful to towards Congress. They said that Lalu kept the Muslim-Yadav constituencies with his party and remained critical of the upper castes as a result of which Congress was not able to make a strong foothold in the state.
Congress MLA from Bhagalpur Ajit Sharma in his statement to the media said that “I told Rahul that Congress does not need an alliance with RJD in Bihar for the time being. If need be, we can get back to RJD prior to 2019 elections to defeat BJP for which Rahul and Sonia should take initiative. As of now, the continuance of alliance with RJD would weaken the morale of party workers in the state.”
He also said that Congress is a national party and should not be dictated by regional parties like RJD. He also accused the RJD chief of using the names of Congress high command and the vice president to promote his rally, while none of the posters of the rally had photographs of either Sonia or Rahul. He further alleged that RJD had deliberately given only those seats to Congress, on which the party could not win.
Though both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are taking the initiative to keep the Bihar Congress united, with BJP trying to color the nation saffron, any changes in the political equation can be expected.