CWC meet over, grand old party still has to convince partners on winnability

New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting that took place in Patna on Wednesday, September 24, is being touted as a “historic” and “landmark” event, being the first such gathering of top leaders in the state in over eight decades.

It came days after the party and its allies concluded the “Voter Adhikar Yatra” earlier this month. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s assertion of a countdown beginning on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would begin with the upcoming Bihar elections may just be an ambitious call to rejuvenate party workers.

Now, his party has to convince the larger alliance partner – Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) – in the opposition alliance of “Mahagathbandhan” or grand alliance to allocate more seats. It will thus be business as usual henceforth, with the Grand Old Party depending on RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav for its share of seats.

Incidentally, soon after the opposition march on “vote chori”, the Lalu Prasad scion had embarked on a solo five-day “Adhikar Yatra” to independently gauge the voters’ mood in 10 of the state’s 38 districts. '

He chose the districts carefully, picking those where the RJD has been gaining, or holding the ground, since 2010.

There is pressure on the partners with reports of the RJD pushing for 150 seats, leaving only 93 for the allies.

Partners like the Congress and the Left want a larger share of the pie, and have been bargaining. In order to intensify the push, a few days earlier, Tejashwi publicly declared that he is ready to contest all the 243 assembly constituencies in Bihar.

In the 2020 assembly elections, his party put up candidates in 144 seats as part of MGB, and won 75, emerging as the single-largest party in the state Assembly. The de facto chief of RJD has, through times, been able to position himself as the face who leads the opposition.

He successfully guided the party to be the single largest in the Assembly, falling short of a majority – even with the allies.

In the run-up to the Assembly election, he deftly bargained on seat sharing with alliance partners – mainly the Left and the Congress.

He is the current Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly. The Congress has signalled support for Tejashwi as the MGB’s Chief Ministerial face, but is reluctant on a formal announcement.

RJD insiders said they are satisfied, claiming that a formal endorsement may follow. Meanwhile, the Congress has been continuously sliding down the political leaderboard in Bihar since 1990, when it won 71 seats, losing 125 seats compared to its earlier tally.

The number decreased to 29 in 1995 and further to 23 in 2000. The situation was even worse for the party in 2010, when it only won four seats. As part of the MGB in 2015, it secured 27 seats, while in 2020 – allotted 70 seats in the alliance – the Congress managed only 19 seats.

Those rooting for Tejashwi as the Chief Minister then, spread the word that it was the Congress’ poor performance that let the opposition down by a razor-thin margin.

Thus, when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi leads the seat negotiations with the larger partner, he would not have much to put on the table in their favour. The party still lacks a charismatic leader as well as an organisational base.

--IANS

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