RJD WILL DICTATE TERMS FOR AN ALLIANCE WITH CONGRESS IN BIHAR
The distaste between the Congress and RJD in Bihar could be a temporary thing as party leaders from both sides believe that the dynamics of the state are such that it would be dangerous for both parties to ditch each other and fight the elections alone. Experts believe that the RJD being a dominant party in the state will give it a standing to dictate terms to Congress, as the latter has weak grassroots in the state and cannot stand firm alone with its current organizational strength.
In the Bengal Assembly elections, to keep the BJP at bay, the RJD had offered Mamata Banerjee a proposal on how their party could be of help for TMC, so that they can win the elections. “Banerjee told us to refrain from contesting, the same way we are offering Congress our help wherever they need, but in Bihar their demands are unreasonable,” an RJD leader said on the condition of anonymity.
A senior Congress leader told The Sunday Guardian, “Congress cannot be dictated to by any political party in the country, and whenever any party moves in an alliance, that is the necessity of both parties and there is no question of Congress getting dictated to.”
The top brass of the RJD believes that the relationship with the Congress is healthy, but are wary of the Bihar state unit, as according to a senior RJD leader, some of the Congress leaders are opportunists and some want to settle their kin which doesn’t play well in an alliance, only the winnability of the candidates should be the criteria to further the alliance.
A well-placed RJD leader said that Congress is a huge party and there are many people always pushing for a position in it. If the party does not propose unrealistic offers, “then we are bound to keep an alliance intact with them. Last time, Bhakhtacharan Das wanted to field his son which would have damaged our prospects, as the candidates in the alliance are fielded on winnability factor and not nepotism”.
A senior political analyst with IPAC who has recently worked on the ground and surveyed several zillas in Bihar, said, “There will be loss of both the parties if they fight separately, more loss will be borne by the Congress because Congress on the ground level does not have grip, neither can they do much. Ground-level workers are less in number. Only Mira Kumar has a good workforce; all the others have very poor ground force. Moreover, their workers and leaders are not active in Bihar. If they fight election separately, it is more likely that some of the voters of parties will vote for JDU according to the study I have done in some areas.”
However, the parties are going through a rough patch since the Assembly elections of 2020. Manifesting the first major crack in relations, the recent by-elections by the two parties were fought separately, and its poor performance had given both the parties a reality check, yet both the parties have further decided to contest the upcoming MLC elections separately over a seat-sharing dispute.
Since the JDU has been in power in Bihar for a long time, experts believe the people of Bihar may want change. And RJD being the highest votegetter at around 23% in the recent Assembly elections has proven itself a dominant party, according to the political observers, the party will do everything to keep the ruling alliance at bay in the coming general elections for which it will need an alliance with the grand old party.