RJD thinks Congress is a ‘burden’ for it

New Delhi: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the main Opposition party of Bihar, is likely to fight the upcoming crucial Bihar Legislative Council polls without an alliance with the Congress as the party’s top leadership believes that the grand-old party is rather a burden for it in the political landscape of the State. The recent Bihar byelections, where the Congress party lost deposits on both the seats, strengthens the RJD’s argument.
A senior RJD functionary told The Sunday Guardian, “Congress is not a force in the State. They are demanding seven seats out of the 24 seats which are going to polls. They don’t understand that their bargaining capability and utility had gone down in the last two years. Why would we ally with them? They deserve not more than three seats. Moreover, we are the single largest party in the Assembly and want to expand our influence among different sections of the society through these polls.”
He revealed, “We wanted to ally with Chirag Paswan’s party, but it seems he is not interested as of now. We may leave a few seats for the Left parties. Our leadership has already decided candidates on 15 seats and in the coming days, we will decide on three more seats. In the political chessboard of the State, no election can be or should be taken lightly as each result will impact the political equation in the State in view of the arithmetic in the Assembly. Hence, giving seven seats to Congress means helping the NDA.”
Out of the 24, RJD is likely to contest 18-20 seats and may leave 3-4 seats for the Left parties. In the last Council polls in 2015, BJP won 13 seats while Janata Dal (United) won five, RJD emerged victorious on four seats and Congress won one seat. The Election Commission is likely to declare the schedule of the polls next week.
Political observers and experts who are closely following the developments agree that the RJD is not willing to give Congress anything more than symbolic representation as the latter’s performance has gone from bad to worse in the last few years.
Talking to The Sunday Guardian, noted political commentator Rana Tej Pratap, who has covered the state widely, said, “RJD had realised that Congress is too weak in the State. In the recent bypolls, Congress candidate Rajesh Kumar Mishra got only 3,852 votes in Tarapur segment and its candidate Atirek Ram got only 5,603 votes and lost the deposits in Kusheshwarsthan while the RJD came second. We all have seen how miserably the Congress performed in the 2020 Assembly elections.”
“This is why RJD is not interested to ally with them. Tejashwi Prasad Yadav wants to ally with Chirag Paswan but Ramvilas Paswan’s political heir wants to develop his own strength so that he can bargain big with the RJD in the Lok Sabha polls. I think, if Congress wants to ally with the RJD in any future election in Bihar, it needs to accept the offer of symbolic representation since its track record is not good at all,” he added.