PATNA: Former Bihar Congress chief and Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh has asserted that his removal as the party's Bihar unit president before the last Assembly election led to the Congress' poor performance in the polls. In the 2025 Assembly election, the Congress won only six of the 61 seats it contested.
The former Union minister's remarks at an event in Delhi on Tuesday are being seen as a criticism of the party leadership at both the central and state levels.
“I was removed from the post of state president before the elections, and the party had to bear the consequences,” he said, raising questions over the leadership's decision.
Singh, who is considered close to RJD chief Lalu Prasad, also took a swipe at the current AICC in-charge of Bihar, Krishna Allavaru, without naming him directly. He also openly objected to the functioning of co-in-charge Shahnawaz Alam, who was present at the event.
“Such people were made in-charge who have nothing to do with politics and have no knowledge of it. When these people came to Bihar, the first thing they did was to remove me from the post of state president,” Singh said.
He maintained that the Congress' performance in the Assembly election would have been better had he remained the state president. “We had succeeded in getting four MPs elected (three Lok Sabha members and one Rajya Sabha member in 2024) when I was holding the post of state party president,” he said.
He further said, “This time, 40 per cent of the elected MLAs in Bihar are from upper-caste communities, and 27 MLAs belong to the Bhumihar caste. I belong to the same caste. I had asked Rahul Gandhi what should now be done in Bihar.”
Akhilesh was replaced by Rajesh Kumar, a Scheduled Caste legislator from Aurangabad district. Kumar also lost his seat in the last election. He had earlier been elected as MLA from Kutumba in Aurangabad district.
Rajesh Kumar had accompanied Rahul Gandhi during his Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar ahead of the Assembly polls.
