PATNA: The appointment of Rajya Sabha member Akhilesh Prasad Singh as Bihar Congress president has created a flutter in the political circles of the state. With Singh’s appointment, the Congress becomes the third major political party of the ruling RJD-led grand alliance in Bihar to give its baton to a forward caste leader.
While it was expected that the grand old party may give a chance to a leader from the OBC, EBC, SC or Muslim communities, the Congress seems to have worked with an objective to wean away the upper caste votes from the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election and 2025 state Assembly polls. Singh is considered close to RJD chief Lalu Prasad. He will succeed Madan Mohan Jha, who is a Brahmin.
Singh’s appointment also shows the Congress’ optimism in making a dent in the upper caste votes at a time when odds are stacked against the BJP in terms of the social equations as the other six constituents — RJD, JD(U), CPI(ML), CPM, CPI and HAM — have a good support base among non-upper caste voters.
Bhumihars, in a bid to assert themselves politically, have also shown a growing impatience with the BJP, and hence may extract more political space from the saffron party. In the Bochaha bye-election earlier this year, a good number of Bhumihar voters had voted in favour of the RJD candidate, much to the dismay of BJP.
The RJD and JD(U) have also been showing their trust in the upper caste leaders. JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh, has retained his post as he enjoys full support of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. Nitish faces the challenge of retaining the support of upper caste voters after he snapped ties with the NDA. Similarly, RJD chief Lalu Prasad who mostly depended on OBC votes, persuaded Jagdanand Singh, a Rajput leader, to continue on the post of state party president.
Jagdanand was reluctant as he was sulking over his son Sudhakar Singh being asked to resign as state agriculture minister following his differences with Nitish.However, Chirag Paswan also made Raju Tiwari, a Brahmin, the state president of his LJP (Ram Vilas) party. Chirag has campaigned for BJP in three recent bypolls in the state.