The Congress has emerged as a weak link in the Tejashwi Yadav-led Mahagathbandhan’s fight against the JD(U)-BJP alliance in the Bihar Assembly elections. Political pundits say that the grand old party fought too many seats and failed to win as many.
Did RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav make the mistake of giving the Congress more than it deserved? The Congress contested 70 seats, the most in the Opposition alliance after the RJD (144). As for the Left parties, CPM was given four seats, the CPI six and the CPI (ML), 19.
At the time of writing the Bihar votes were still being counted, but one thing is clear: Every party has showed a better strike rate than the Congress, which was in the fourth place among the major parties.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the RJD-Congress partnership flopped as the NDA swept the polls, winning 39 of 40 seats, and the Congress got one. The RJD scored a duck.
As the time of writing, prominent Congress candidates, including Sharad Yadav’s daughter Subhashini Sharad Yadav and actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha’s son Luv Sinha, were trailing.
In Madhya Pradesh bypolls too, the Congress faired poorly with the party failing to return to power. Similarly, the party failed to live up to the expectations in the bypolls in most other states, barring in Haryana where the Congress has won the lone seat in Baroda in Sonepat district, though analysts feel that it is more of a personal victory for party strongman and former Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
The Congress in Bihar fared badly as despite contesting 70 seats, it could not add to the strength of the Grand Alliance. Party insiders say that the Congress needs course correction in taking on the BJP.
It needs to be mentioned here that the dissent group within the Congress had recently written to interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, demanding sweeping reforms in the party.
The Congress leaders responsible for the elections in Bihar are silent on the issue of electoral loss, and the spokespersons were left to defend the party post the loss. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi campaigned for four days in Bihar, but could not rally the support behind the party candidates.
Some leaders say that lack of coordination and arrogance on the part of the Grand Alliance led to the defeat, as had the RJD not alienated the smaller groups in the alliance, the Mahagathbandhan could have increased its numbers. Due to stiff resistance by the RJD on the seat sharing formula, the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) left the alliance and have eaten into the Opposition votes by giving edge to the NDA, said a Congress leader who did not wish to be named.
Some Congress insiders, however, feel that contesting 70 seats was a bad decision as the party did not have good candidates in the state.
When RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was announcing the seat sharing formula in Patna, the VIP had staged a walk out and was later adjusted by the BJP. The smaller parties could have added to the strength of the Grand Alliance.
With agency inputs
