The former Bihar chief minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Sunday snubbed the Congress after Congress’ Bihar in-charge Bhakta Charan Das announced his party was no more part of RJD led grand alliance.
“What is Congress’ alliance? Would we have left everything to Congress for a loss? For losing of deposits?,” Lalu told the media in Delhi. He dismissed the Congress and called the party’s Bihar incharge Bhakta Charan Das a man of low IQ.
#WATCH | Delhi: RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav speaks on the breaking of party’s alliance with Congress in Bihar. He says, “What is Congress’ alliance? Would we have left everything to Congress for a loss? For losing of deposits?”
— ANI (@ANI) October 24, 2021
The RJD leader will go to Patna. pic.twitter.com/3IZpa41zuU
The Congress was annoyed after the RJD announced candidates for Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur assembly seats of Bihar assembly where the by-poll is scheduled on October 30. Congress alleged the RJD for breaching the canon of alliance and said that RJD even fielded the candidate for Kusheshwar Asthan – a seat which the Congress had contested in the 2020 assembly election under the seat-sharing pact. However, the Congress had lost this seat.
In the 2020 assembly poll Shashi Bhushan Hazari (JD-U) had defeated Ashoka Kumar of the Congress in Kusheshwar Asthan whereas Mewalal Choudhary (JD-U) had defeated RJD’s Divya Prakash from Tarapur. Both seats fell vacant following their death.
On Friday, Bhakat Charan Das announced the exit of the Congress from the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) stating that the party will contest both seats. He even went on to say that the Congress will contest all 40 parliamentary seats in Bihar in 2024 alone.
The daily brickbats between leaders of the Congress and RJD have charged up the political atmosphere of Bihar leading one to believe the grand alliance has finally collapsed and friends have turned into foes.
Former JNU student Kanhaiya Kumar who recently joined the Congress has reached Bihar along with Jignesh Mevani and Hardik Patel to campaign for the by-poll. Kanhaiya Kumar who held a press conference slammed the RJD and its senior party leader Dr Manoj Jha who had criticized Bhakta Charan Das. Kanhaiya Kumar sharply reacted that Manoj Jha should ask his master (Lalu Prasad) if he did not who was Bhakta Charan Das.
But the poll strategists of BJP and JD-U in Bihar are keenly watching the war of words. “I have a feeling that they (Congress RJD) are trying to make us believe that they are actually fighting,” said Sanjay Kumar Singh, a farmer and BJP worker from Kusheshwar Asthan. Political analysts believe it is deliberate pre-poll posturing to confuse voters and to divide especially the upper caste voters of the NDA.
“There is nothing straight in the politics of Bihar. Such bickering is often staged to confuse voters. The upper caste voters generally stay away from the RJD. There may be traditional NDA voters from the upper caste who may be disgruntled with the NDA. In such a situation the Congress will be an option for them,” said Patna-based political analyst Santosh Kumar Singh.
