Since Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar broke the grand alliance with RJD–Congress and formed the new government in alliance with BJP, Congress is also facing a tough time in Bihar.
In such a situation, the Congress has a big challenge to protect its MLAs, but the party’s big leaders do not seem to be moved by the big tensions lying ahead of them. After the breakup in the alliance, many Congress MLAs have been craving to be in power again and this is the reason why the possibility of a breakdown of the Congress MLA has increased and soon Bihar may witness another political turmoil in the state.
Congress though did not capture the throne but was sharing the power of ruling in Bihar after almost two decades. In this situation, the Congress leaders were also enjoying the pleasure of power after almost 20 years, but the enjoyment could not last long as Nitish Kumar broke the alliance and joined hands with BJP.
After the defeat of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Nitish Kumar, Lalu Yadav and the Congress together formed a grand coalition to fight against BJP and Nitish Kumar was made the face of this great coalition. Of the 243 seats in Bihar, RJD, JD(U) and Congress fought for 101, 101 and 41 seats respectively.
Congress MLAs are skeptical of the central leadership as they believe that the party did not take any decision on the RJD Supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav’sson and former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Tasvish Yadav, regarding the corruption charges alleged by the CBI on the two. The unhappy Congress MLAs strongly believe that for this reason, Congress came out of power in Bihar.
Party legislators believe that the central leadership should have decided to stay with Nitish Kumar. According to them had the party taken the right decision to support Nitish and stay in the alliance, the party would not have been powerless in Bihar. The angry MLAs representing the upper class want to join the BJP now, while minority and backward class MLAs want to go with JDU.
After Nitish formed the new government in coalition with BJP, the Bihar Congress convened a meeting of the legislative party in Patna on August 11. In this meeting, 20 MLAs of the party joined while 7 MLAs were absent. These seven MLAs were against the party for standing against Nitish Kumar and supporting Lalu Prasad Yadav. The absence of these seven MLAs was the first that soon the party might witness a split.
After the meeting that it was being discussed that these MLAs could leave the Congress. A senior JD-U leader had also confirmed that 7 Congress MLAs were in constant touch with them. However, the Bihar Congress had denied any such possibility. It is also being said that the rebel Congress MLAs are not even happy with RJD-Congress alliance. This split of the Congress legislators is emerging at a time when JD-U rebel leader Sharad Yadav and former deputy chief minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, are trying to create an atmosphere in support of the opposition in Bihar against Nitish Kumar. In this critical situation, any revolt amongst Congress will weaken the Opposition and further strengthen Nitish’s foothold in the state.
Recently, none of the two top leaders of the Central leadership of the Congress were involved in the RJD rally held in Patna. While Sonia Gandhi cited her health reasons, Rahul Gandhi went to Norway on a foreign trip. Though the recorded speech of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi’s written message was carried out in the rally, the presence of either of the members of the Gandhi family could have refueled the much-needed energy in Bihar Congress workers. Congress is fighting a battle to save its existence at this time and in such circumstances, the revolt of Bihar Congress will further weaken the party’s position on the political platform.
The Nitish Kumar-led JDU-BJP coalition government proved its majority in the Bihar Assembly, but the revolt of JDU’s senior leader Sharad Yadav and several other party leaders has brought wrinkle on Nitish Kumar’s forehead. It is possible that some MLAs of JDU would be with Sharad Yadav.On the other hand, former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi is also angry with the BJP and he can extend his support to any of the parties where he sees his benefit. In such a situation, the Nitish government may face difficulties in maintaining the majority in Bihar Assembly. With all these possibilities in mind, Nitish Kumar is taking all steps very calculatingly and decisively.
Seeing the turbulence of the rebellion in Bihar, the Congress high command has finally taken steps to control the situation. Bihar Congress leaders Sadanand and Ashok Chaudhary were summoned by Sonia Gandhi on Thursday. According to sources, the two leaders have been severely reprimanded and the Congress high Command has ordered them not to go against the party rules.
However, Ashok Chaudhary denied any such speculations in front of the media and said that “It is all rumored and we came here to discuss how to strengthen Bihar’s organization.” He also denied any possibility of a split in the Bihar Congress. Senior Congress leaders including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel and CP Joshi were also present at the meeting on Thursday held at the residence of Sonia Gandhi.
Within the coming days, a tremendous political upheaval can be seen in Bihar and Congress in Bihar will be the one to suffer the damages mostly. There are high possibilities of the seven rebel Congress MLAs joining the Nitish Kumar led JD(U). This may prove to be a major setback for the party, who is already fighting to keep its existence in the political equations in India with BJP trying to paint the country saffron.