Crisis deepens in Grand Alliance in Bihar with Congress upping

Crisis deepened in the opposition Grand Alliance in Bihar on Thursday with the Congress state unit coming out in favour of fielding its own strong candidates in all the five assembly seats where by-polls are scheduled next month.

AICC secretary in-charge for the state- Virendra Rathore- said this was the view expressed by leaders at the PEC (Pradesh Election Committee) meeting held here on the previous evening and the proposal would be forwarded to the high command for final approval.

"At the PEC meeting our state unit leaders expressed the view that we have strong candidates for all the five seats. Lists of potential candidates were also drawn and we will apprise the high command of the same and proceed as directed", Rathore told reporters here.

 

Filing of nominations for by-elections to five assembly seats besides Samastipur Lok Sabha constituency will come to a close on September 30 and in the face of the prevailing chaos, the five-party coalition which was decimated in the Lok Sabha general elections faces an uphill task of putting up a cohesive fight against the formidable NDA.

Notably, on Wednesday former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi had announced his Hindustani Awam Morchas candidate from Nathnagar assembly segment and charged Lalu Prasads RJD with having disrespected allies by announcing its own nominees for four seats, barring Kishanganj, which was held by the Congress and has fallen vacant on account of sitting MLA Mohd Javed getting elected to the Parliament.

Bollywood set designer-turned-politician Mukesh Sahni had similarly announced that his fledgling Vikassheel Insaan Party will be throwing its hat in the ring for Simari Bakhtiyarpur besides backing Manjhis candidate in Nathnagar, and wondered whether RJD "wanted to remain in the coalition or walk out".

Former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, whose RLSP joined the grouping on the eve of the general election, is yet to reveal his cards.

Meanwhile, the old guards within the RJD in which the founding presidents younger son Tejashwi Yadav calls the shots have said the Congress would be persuaded to review its stand which may result in giving the BJP-led coalition additional advantage.

"Nothing comes to an end in politics. There is still room to manoeuver. Congress is our old ally. We will sort out differences with their leaders and put up a united front", RJD national vice president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh told reporters.

However, Tejashwis loyalists are reportedly furious with Singh one of the founding members of the RJD for having met Jan Adhikar Party chief Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav on the previous day.

Pappu Yadav, who had contested and won the 2014 Lok Sabha polls on an RJD ticket, floated his own outfit after he was expelled for anti-party activities.

Yadav has been a strident critic of Tejashwi and had charged him with trying to queer the pitch for CPIs Kanhaiya Kumar in the recent general elections out of "insecurity".

Another party national vice president Shivanand Tiwary, who has been in and out of RJD a number of times, also expressed strong displeasure over the Congress latest move and urged the party to reconsider its stand "unless they covertly want to help the BJP".

Tiwary is also said to have entered the bad books of Tejashwi for advocating return to the Grand Alliance of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U).

The Grand Alliance had come into being with JD(U), RJD and Congress joining hands ahead of the 2015 assembly polls and trouncing the NDA at the hustings. Kumar walked out in 2017 after Tejashwi who was then his deputy got embroiled in a money laundering case.