Prime Minister Narendra Modi — on a day the National Democratic Alliance achieved a sweeping victory in Bihar — predicted the possibility of the Congress undergoing another split and issued a warning to its allies to be wary of the Grand Old Party. Addressing BJP workers and supporters at the party headquarters in Delhi, he said: "The Congress criticises the Election Commission, makes frivolous complaints about baseless issues like 'vote chori' (vote theft), divides people on the basis of religion and caste... The Congress has no positive vision for the country."
The Prime Minister delivered a particularly sharp criticism of the party's direction: "The truth is that today, Congress, and I say this very seriously, today Congress has become the Muslim League Maoist Congress... And the entire agenda of Congress now runs on this." He argued that because of this trajectory, a new branch, "which is even worse than this negative politics," is emerging within the Congress itself. The emergence of this section, he claimed, has created deep disappointment within the Congress ranks.
"And I have a suspicion that there may be another big division of Congress in the future. And friends, the supporters of Congress have also begun to understand that Congress is drowning everyone in its negative politics. Everyone is drowning at the same time," he added.
While Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) posted one of its worst performances in Bihar, leading in only around 25 seats, the Congress slipped from the 19 seats it won in 2020 to leading in only around five seats. Its vote share also plunged from 9.48 per cent to approximately 8 per cent.
The party's performance in 2020 was considered sub-par and had strained relations with ally RJD, casting a shadow on the seat-sharing process this time. The two parties failed to reach a consensus and ended up fielding candidates unilaterally, leading to "friendly contests" in a handful of seats. Both parties, however, insisted this was deliberate and dictated by local ground realities.
The Congress also ran a lacklustre campaign ahead of the election, which fizzled out after the initial, adrenaline-driven Voter Adhikar Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi. On a few occasions, he was joined by Tejashwi Yadav on stage, but by the time the BJP's formidable election machinery swept the state, Gandhi was largely missing in action, reportedly upsetting the RJD.
The upshot of the election is that the NDA is set to sweep Bihar, surging ahead in around 200 of the state's 243 seats. The BJP is set to emerge as the single-largest party with a nearly 95 per cent strike rate, reaffirming the popularity of PM Modi. A resurgent JDU is close behind, with voters backing the aging Nitish Kumar despite reports of anti-incumbency and his ill health.
Also read: Bypolls deliver scattered mandate across India
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