PATNA: With the entry of Kanhaiya Kumar, Jignesh Mevani and Hardik Patel in Bihar politics, the Congress party took an exit from its political alliance with the RJD in Bihar on Friday. The party made an announcement that it will not only contest in the bypolls alone, but also contest all 40 Lok Sabha seats in 2024.
The turning point in the party's political strategy took place when Kanhaiya, Jignesh and Hardik Patel reached Bihar as star campaigners to candidates in upcoming bypolls.
The discomfort between Bihar’s main opposition RJD and the Congress became evident soon after the induction of Kanhaiya Kumar into the party.
The Congress is staking claim on the Kusheshwar Asthan Assembly seat in Darbhanga, elections for which will be held on October 30.
The discord in the Grand Alliance also came to the fore recently when the Congress sought to field its candidate for bypoll to Kusheshwar Asthan - a seat which it had contested in the 2020 state elections, in line with the Grand Alliance's seat-sharing pact - but the RJD went ahead and named its nominees from both the constituencies.
General Secretary of AICC and senior Congress leader of Bihar Tariq Anwar said "The assembly by-elections in two seats in have definitely given a lesson that the Congress should now stand on its own feet. It will not be appropriate to depend on the crutches of any other party for a long time".
"The Congress Party is fully geared up with its leaders like Kanhaiya Kumar and others to register victory on both the assembly seats in Kusheshwarasthan and Tarapur. Our party is not in friendly fight with the RJD. Rather, we are fighting to win with the massive supports of people," said Bhakat Charan Das, the state in-charge of Bihar Pradesh Congress Party.
Enthused at the arrival of party’s trio-Kanhaiya Kumar, Jignesh Mevani and Hardik Patel in Bihar for campaigning as start campaigners, Das announced that the Congress Party will contest on all 40 LS seats in Bihar in 2024 alone.
"The Congress Party is preparing itself for the next LS elections to take on the NDA. Since our party is the grand old national party, our responsibility is to save the nation and save the state also", Das said, accusing the RJD of having betrayed the alliance with RJD in the Grand Alliance.
Adopting a tit-for-tat stand against the RJD, Das told the media that if the RJD can not give the Congress Party respect, how can the RJD expect the same from Congress party?
He categorically denied that the Congress party and RJD were in friendly fight in the upcoming bypolls.
Putting faith in new trioof the Congress, Das said that Kanhaiya, Jignesh and Patel will certainly strengthen the party.
Kanhaiya Kumar, speaking on Friday, for the first time after joining Congress Party, asked the people to save freedom by being with the Congress Party.
According to sources, the RJD was never in favour of Kanhaiya's entry into the Congress Party as he was seen with a potential to emerge as a rival against Tejashwi Yadav.
In Bihar’s politics, Kanhaiya Kumar has entered as the third bachelor politician after Tejashwi Yadav and Chirag Paswan, who pulls the crowd.
According to Dr Nawal Kishor-national spokesperson of RJD, the Bihar assembly held in 2000, February 2005 and October 2005, the RJD had won the Kusheshwar Asthan seat.
Meanwhile, sources said the possibility for forging a new alliance of RJD with LJP(Ram Vilas), led by Chirag Paswan, has increased more after the splits in alliance with the Congress Party.