Lalu is protecting RJD interests at the expense of Congress.
Bihar and Maharashtra are the two states where the Bharatiya Janata Party strategists were of the view that they would be facing significant challenges if the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) were able to distribute its seats and tickets wisely. However, on Friday, BJP’s concern seems to have been resolved on its own, after the seat sharing announcement made by the I.N.D.I.A leaders in Patna.
As per the deal that was finalised, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) would contest on 26 seats, Congress on 9, while the three Left parties would contest on the remaining 5 seats.
The announcement was done by the state president of these five parties and both the opening lines and the closing lines were narrated by RJD leaders Abdul Bari Siddiqui and Manoj Jha, and everything was concluded within three minutes, without giving the microphone to Congress state president and Rajya Sabha leader, Akhilesh Prasad Singh.
After this, all the leaders left the stage quickly to avoid questions from journalists.
An analysis of the seat distribution clearly reveals that like in the past, Congress leaders have been relegated to play a distant second fiddle to the RJD once again.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the RJD had contested 19 seats, while the Congress was given the same number of seats, nine.
Bihar-based Congress party sources had been telling The Sunday Guardian that given the fact that since after the departure of Nitish Kumar-led JDU from the alliance, the RJD and the Congress were the only major parties that remained in the alliance, and hence they would be contesting on not less than 12-14 seats.
However, as the seat distribution shows, RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav prevailed over the grand old party, once again.
Apart from increasing the number of seats it will contest this time, from 19 to 26, Lalu also took away the seats that were being demanded by the Congress including that of Purnia from where Congress leader had committed a ticket to Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, after which Pappu had joined the Congress earlier this month.
It was not only Purnia, but the adjoining Supaul and Madhepura, which could have been the second best options for Pappu Yadav, too was bagged by the RJD.
The intention behind this is to ensure that Pappu Yadav is not able to make any significant impact at a personal level in this election. If he had been able to make a mark, he would have emerged as among the tallest Yadav leaders in the state and a direct competitor to Tejashwi Yadav, the heir to the RJD throne.
Pappu was perhaps the only political entity in the entire state, cutting across political parties, who when the Covid pandemic was at its peak, rather than staying at home and feign Covid infection like many others were doing, was moving around in the state, distributing food, cremating unclaimed bodies and pressuring government hospital staff to clean the surroundings and medical waste and giving free medicine to the lowest strata of the society.
He was working on the Purnia seat for a long time and political observers believe that the I.N.D.I.A bloc was guaranteed of at least one seat if Pappu were to contest from Purnia.
State Congress functionaries are also terming Lalu’s decision to ensure that Pappu does not contest on any of his strong seats as a snub to Rahul Gandhi.
When reached for comments, Tejaswhi Yadav told the media that the alliance was with a party not with an individual.
The recent developments have also cast shadows on Congress state party president, Akhilesh Prasad Singh who is being accused of succumbing to pressure from Lalu Yadav and not putting the party’s demands across firmly. This is being attributed to the fact that he was assisted by Lalu to get nominated to the Rajya Sabha twice in succession.
In October last year, Lalu, while speaking at a programme organised by the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC), at its headquarters Sadakat Ashram in Patna, had stated that BPCC president Akhilesh Prasad Singh could become a member of the Rajya Sabha only because of his intervention.
Lalu claimed, “Akhilesh came to meet me in Birsa Munda central jail at Ranchi in March 2018 to seek my blessings for being selected as Congress candidate for the biennial election to Rajya Sabha. I called up Sonia Gandhi from jail and convinced her to field Akhilesh as the Congress candidate and she agreed.” At the time Lalu was lodged in Ranchi jail after his conviction in the fodder scam.
Two former Congress state presidents told The Sunday Guardian that when former Congress leader R.K. Dhawan was working as AICC general secretary in charge of the state, Lalu would simply hand over the list of Congress candidates for elections and the same list would be released by the headquarters.
The same pattern, as the recent incidents show, continues as both Akhilesh Prasad Singh and in-charge Mohan Prakash have been accused of being subservient to Lalu and his son Tejashwi, for reasons best known to them, a senior Patna-based Congress functionary claimed.
According to a secretary level functionary, the Congress had to sacrifice its one seat in Jharkhand to RJD in order to ensure that it is able to contest on at least nine seats in Bihar, a far cry from the 14-15 seats that they were wanting.
The traditional Congress seats in Bihar like Purnia, Munger, Aurangabad and Valmiki Nagar, too will now be contested by RJD candidates. The only two seats which have remained with the Congress that can be categorized as its “strong seats” are Katihar and Kishanganj.
The concern of Lalu not to allow any leader to come on stage who might become a challenger to Tejashwi in the coming years is also being described as the reason why Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar did not contest the elections as he knew that even if he had managed to get a ticket, courtesy his perceived closeness to Rahul Gandhi, Lalu and Tejashwi would have ensured that he would lose.
To remove Kanhaiya from the equation, the Begusarai seat from where he had contested the last general elections on a Left ticket, was given to CPI by Lalu much before the formal announcement of the seat sharing was done. In fact, sources in the party told The Sunday Guardian that Kanhaiya Kumar had told the party leadership last year itself that even if the party would push his name from Bihar, the same would be vetoed by Lalu. And that is what happened.
Congress sources in Bihar said that post the seat distribution it was clear that the RJD, rather than working as a part of a team, was focusing on strengthening itself at the expense of the Congress in the state. The Assembly elections in the state are scheduled for next year and Lalu and RJD are more focused on coming back to power.
The Congress leaders said that it would be wishful thinking to expect that given what transpired in the past few days, the Congress workers would diligently work for the RJD candidates in the state.