congress-taking-it-easy-in-bihar

Just six days are left for campaigning for the first phase of polling in Bihar; 121 seats are going to polls on November 6. None of the prominent Congress leaders has campaigned in the state so far. Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to attend his first public rally along with the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav on October 29. This is more of a token presence that Gandhi will mark in the Bihar battlefield. Otherwise, he has remained away all these days.

That not all is well with the Grand Alliance in Bihar is already too well known. There were indications about it way before the formal election schedule was announced. It appeared to have started during the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ of Rahul Gandhi, where Tejashwi Yadav appeared to be his pale shadow. Although Yadav accompanied Gandhi for the entire duration of the ‘yatra’, the discomfiture in the RJD camp was too obvious to be missed as Tejashwi felt completely overshadowed by Gandhi.

First obvious signs were visible during the concluding rally held in Patna. The RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav gave it a miss. Although he does have health issues, he could still have managed to attend like he attended the inaugural rally at the beginning of the ‘yatra’.

Tejashwi Yadav followed up Gandhi’s ‘yatra’ on his own where he went solo. Besides, the RJD leadership was also irked about the absence of posters, banners and cut-outs of the RJD leaders at the Gandhi Maidan during the concluding rally of the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who is known to deliver long and comprehensive speeches on such occasions, wound it up within a few minutes. So did Rahul Gandhi, reflecting the not-so-good mood of the leaders even after a grand and successful three-week ‘yatra’, which drew huge crowds. 

Things got further complicated after the Congress initially declined to agree to Tejashwi Yadav as the Chief Ministerial candidate of the Grand Alliance. This led to considerable mistrust between the Congress and the RJD. It was eventually the last minute fire-fighting by former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Ghelot that finally led to the Congress accepting Yadav as the Chief Ministerial candidate.

How reluctantly the Congress accepted Yadav as the CM candidate can be judged from the fact that the party did not insist for the Deputy Chief Ministerial candidate for itself. Mukesh Sahani of the Vikassheel Insaan Party, which is fighting just 15 seats against the Congress’ 61, was named as the Deputy Chief Ministerial candidate.

There was a credible reason for the Congress to avoid naming Tejashwi as the Chief Ministerial candidate. Despite being in power for 20 years, there is not much anti-incumbency against Nitish Kumar. There is no “anti-Nitish” sentiment on the ground. At worst, people may be indifferent towards Nitish but they are not hostile towards him. Once it comes choosing between Nitish and Tejashwi, Nitish will be the obvious choice.

One, Tejashwi is no match to Nitish. Plus, Tejashwi cannot disown the legacy he has inherited from his father. RJD rule in Bihar is identified with lawlessness, infamously described as “jungle raj”. People are wary about return of those days of anarchy and lawlessness.

Besides, Lalu Prasad Yadav has been convicted in multiple corruption cases. And those cases were not registered during the BJP regime. People still remember when Rahul Gandhi strongly opposed an ordinance that sought to provide cover to Lalu from being disqualified as Member of Parliament, after it became clear that his conviction in one of the cases related to the multi-crore fodder scam was imminent. The ordinance issued by the UPA government in 2013, was later withdrawn due to Rahul’s opposition. Lalu, after conviction, was disqualified as an MP.

Despite this huge baggage, Lalu asserted his position and exerted extra pressure on the Congress to concede to his demands. Not only did Congress fight nine seats less than the last time in 2020, it had also to submit to Lalu’s stubbornness over naming his son as the alliance Chief Ministerial candidate, which is likely to prove disadvantageous for the grand alliance. It is surprising as to why Lalu and the RJD insisted on the pre-election announcement of Tejashwi as the Chief Ministerial candidate. In case the alliance wins, Tejashwi would be the obvious and undisputed choice.

With the result, the Congress appears to have lost much of its interest in Bihar. The party is quite unlikely to gain much from the alliance victory in Bihar. Even if the Grand Alliance manages to win the elections, the victory would be primarily that of the RJD and Lalu Yadav. And there are no doubts in anyone’s mind about how Lalu runs the government. It is this fear and apprehension about him and his party that people are quite reluctant and apprehensive about taking a risk.

Normally the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi are much sought after leaders for campaigning. Kharge may not be able to campaign as aggressively as in the previous elections as he underwent a cardiac procedure recently. He may not be able to exert much.
Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are great crowd-pullers. Their absence from the campaign so far is being noticed with curiosity. It has only reaffirmed the widespread perception that all is not well within the Grand Alliance, which seeks to replace the Nitish-NDA government in Bihar after 20 years.