 "Lalu Prasad joins Oppn chorus to back Mamata for heading INDIA bloc")
All isn’t well within the INDIA bloc after the losses that its lead party, the Congress, suffered in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly polls.
Some of the Congress’ allies backed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s claim that she should lead the bloc instead of a leader from the Congress.
On Tuesday, close on the heels of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar supporting Banerjee’s assertion that she should lead the bloc, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) founder Lalu Prasad said Banerjee could head the INDIA bloc.
The Assembly elections in Bihar are less than a year away, and sources in the Congress attributed Prasad’s comments as a tactic to put pressure on their party in the forthcoming seat-sharing negotiations.
However, sources in the Congress dismissed demands that Banerjee should lead the INDIA alliance.
A Congress leader said it was the biggest party of the alliance with a nationwide electoral footprint, and the voice of the opposition in Parliament.
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Congress MP and its Lok Sabha whip Manickam accused the INDIA bloc allies of using the demand for a leadership change as a “diversionary tactic” to take the focus away from the opposition’s demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the activities of the Adani group.
Over the years, Prasad has been staunchest of the Congress’ allies.
When asked by journalists in Patna whether Banerjee should lead the INDIA bloc, the RJD patriarch replied in the affirmative.
“Yes, she should lead,” he said. “The Congress' reservations amount to nothing. Mamata should be given the leadership role,” Prasad said.
The former Bihar CM’s comments come a day after Congress’ Bihar co-incharge Shahnawaz Alam had hinted that the party was no longer willing to play the role of “little brother” in the Mahagathbandhan.
“In politics, nobody is a big brother or a little brother. In the Assembly polls, the number of seats each party would contest must be decided on the basis of several factors, including the respective strike rates in the Lok Sabha elections,” Alam said.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the RJD contested 23 of Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabha seats, winning a meagre four.
The Congress, the second biggest constituent of the alliance in Bihar, performed slightly better, winning three of the nine LS seats it contested.
The RJD had also refused to accommodate Congress’ interests, especially on the Purnea seat. However, in the 2020 Assembly polls, the RJD had performed creditably as it won 75 of the 144 seats it contested and emerged the single largest party.
The Congress’ strike rate was the poorest among constituents of the grand alliance. It could win only 19 of the 70 seats it contested and was termed the alliance’s “weakest link.”
Congress legislative party leader Shakil Ahmed Khan said, “Lalu ji is known to say lots of things casually. Let him place on record his views whenever the INDIA bloc holds its meeting. What does he mean by saying there should be a leadership change? Does he want Rahul Gandhi to be replaced as Leader of the Opposition, a post our leader holds by virtue of the party's strength in the Lok Sabha?”