NEW DELHI: Congress veteran Madan Mohan Jha is the new Bihar unit chief, while senior leader Akhilesh Prasad Singh would head the campaign committee in the team revamped by party chief Rahul Gandhi. Congress chief also named four working presidents in the state unit including Ashok Kumar, Kaukab Quadri, who held the charge of PCC, Sameer Kumar Singh and Shyam Sunder to assist Jha and arrive at a caste balance.
A 23 member PCC working committee and 19 member advisory committee was also announced by the Congress chief in the state where the party hopes to work out an alliance with the RJD to take on the ruling JD-U-BJP combine."We need to negotiate from a position of strength and for that we need a strong organisation. That is the priority and we are working to achieve it," AICC in charge of Bihar Shaktisinh Gohil said.
The fortunes of the Congress had improved in 2015 when it was able to bring together arch rivals JD-U and RJD in a grand alliance which defeated the BJP led NDA in the assembly polls but later lost power as chief minister Nitish Kumar ditched the grouping to join hands with the BJP.
Since then, the Congress and the RJD have come closer as was reflected in RJD founder Lalu Prasad's public support for Sonia Gandhi's attempts to forge Opposition over Presidential elections in 2017 and later declaring that Rahul would be the opposition's prime ministerial nominee in 2019. Rahul, who had some reservations in openly supporting a tainted Lalu, currently serving a jail term, has of late bonded well with his son Tejashwi Yadav, who is steering the RJD. In 2014, while the RJD could win 4 seats, the Congress won only two seats.