How Congress Agreed To Toe RJD Line In Battle For Bihar!
In the run-up to the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections Congress had created the hope taking a fresh stand vis-à-vis Rashtriya Janata Dal and presenting a new image in the state’s political battlefield. However, neither the political landscape of Bihar nor its electorate seemed particularly eager to embrace this change.
The young team entrusted with understanding and assessing the reality of this so-called transformation failed to fulfil its task. Gradually, Congress found itself pushed to the back foot as the father-son duo of Lalu-Tejaswi Yadav stood firm deciding the final allocation of seats within the alliance.
The party’s state in-charge Krishna Allavaru and its student body’s national in charge, Kanhaiya Kumar had had set out with big ambitions. Well before the elections, they launched the “Give Jobs, Stop Migration” campaign, whose entire blueprint was drawn up at Sadaqat Ashram (the Bihar Congress headquarters).
These moves were made with taking RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav into confidence. When it came to identifying potential constituencies, around 140 seats were marked and sent to RJD from Sadaqat Ashram itself. Later, when talks of contesting and seat-sharing began, Congress forwarded a list of 71 constituencies, which even included some of RJD’s sitting seats.
Congress in making such moves tried to shed the tag of being RJD’s B-Team” and reclaim its own legacy base, comprising Muslims, Dalits, and upper castes. Krishna Allavaru and Kanhaiya Kumar tried to rebuild Congress from the ground up. Even Rahul Gandhi, during his “Adhikar Yatra,” attempted to assess the strength of the Bihar unit. But Congress strategists failed to communicate one critical finding from their internal surveys that the party could not survive without RJD’s support base.
The traditional Congress vote of Muslims, Dalits, and upper castes today stand fragmented. Muslims largely stood with RJD, especially after the Waqf Board Amendment controversy. Upper castes continue to back BJP, and in the event of disenchantment Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj was the option they looked up to.
Dalits were divided among various leaders and factions, the Dusadh (Paswan) community (about 5%) sided with Chirag Paswan, while the Ravidas voters were split among Congress, RJD and a few local leaders. In such a fragmented scenario, returning to the back foot became an inevitable compulsion for Congress.
In a tough bargain, RJD leadership further pointed out that since several other allies had joined, both RJD and Congress would have to reduce their seat share. When Congress later presented a revised list of 61 constituencies, it had already given up claims on several seats where it had lost narrowly in the previous election.
When the Congress’s political experiment did not make way, party brought in senior leader and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, known as a shrewd strategist with long-standing ties to Lalu Prasad Yadav to end the stalemate. Eventually, seat-sharing reverted to the formula originally proposed by Lalu Prasad Yadav himself. Congress having accepted to project Tejaswi Yadav as the Chief Ministerial face, has in its own way, put the onus on the RJD leadership to push a concerted and forceful campaign for the alliance in a battle which for now looks like going neck and neck.
(The writer is an established Author, Academic and President of the Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice)
