As Bihar gears up for assembly elections scheduled for later this year, senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Tariq Anwar said the party must get its act together as its preparations are not up to the mark.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Anwar said the party should take decisions on the selection of candidates and seats early as elections are only six months away. “We have only six months in hand. The party shouldn’t keep crucial decisions on candidate selection, seat selection, etc, for the last minute. We should learn lessons from electoral debacles in Maharashtra, Delhi and Haryana and work hard,” said Anwar.
While there is speculation that the Congress may contest the assembly polls alone, Anwar ruled out such a possibility. “Our alliance in Bihar is 25-30 years old. This is not the time to review alliance politics. Our aim should be to defeat the NDA and the BJP. All secular forces should unite in this fight,” said Anwar.
Last week, Krishna Allavaru, who is in charge of the Bihar Congress, had said the party would contest the Assembly election as an ‘A team’ instead of being the ‘B team’ of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
However, the Congress MP said the INDIA alliance partners lack coordination. “Elections are very close and a coordination committee has not been constituted yet. It has to be constituted immediately,” he said, adding that the RJD must take the initiative being the largest party.
Apart from the Congress, the grand alliance of the Opposition includes the RJD and Left parties including the CPI, CPIML and CPI(M).
While the RJD and Congress leaders have been making unpleasant statements over seat-sharing, Anwar said that the two parties are yet to start negotiations. When asked if the Congress is willing to compromise and contest fewer seats, he said, “Let the negotiations start. Everything will be decided by consensus.” The Congress has managed to win only 19 of 70 seats contested in the 2020 assembly elections and was accused of pulling down the alliance with its poor performance.
Anwar added that the central leadership has called a meeting with its Bihar leaders on March 12 to plan the strategy for the state polls.