NEW DELHI: All is not well between the major constituents of the Mahagatvandhan (grand alliance) — RJD and Congress — party in Bihar right now. A break-up seems inevitable after the results of by-elections. Congress has accused RJD of colluding with BJP indirectly. RJD has accused Congress of going against a coalition partner in the by-elections.
Bhakat Charan Das, in-charge of Bihar Congress, said RJD is playing a game with Congress and colluding with another party (referring to BJP) against which both had come together in the Mahagatvandhan.
“When RJD doesn’t need the support of 19 Congress MLAs, it means the RJD is trying to get the support of a party against which political ideologies of the Mahagatvandhan was formed,” Das alleged. Congress had fielded candidates in the Kusheshwarasthan and Tarapur Assembly seats against RJD and the ruling JD-U. In the last election, Kusheshwarasthan was under the Congress quota and its candidate had lost by a small margin. This time, RJD decided to field candidates in both of these seats. By-elections are happening because JD-U MLA in these two places have died.
RJD said Congress had lost in Kusheshwarasthan because of its poor political footholds. But the grand old party remains adamant on this seat and finally when negotiations failed to break the impasse, decided to contest both seats.
Reacting to the RJD’s decision, the Bihar Congress in-charge said the political coalition between RJD and Congress has come to an end in the by-elections. “The RJD has forgotten to follow the ‘gatvandhan-dharma’ (coalition ethics) with the Congress, even though these two parties are the bigger constituents of the grand alliance in Bihar,” Das said. Senior RJD leader and MP Manoj Jha said that Congress should not teach RJD lessons in ‘coalition-dharma’.