Bihar Politics: RJD and Congress held separate meetings to review the Bihar election defeat. But what will be the gist of these meetings when both the losers and the losers were part of the Grand Alliance? In reality, they were defeated not by the NDA, but by their own stubbornness and arrogance.
Patna: Both were blind, the fire was blazing ahead, yet they jumped into it. Now they are reviewing how they got burned? This is exactly what RJD and Congress did in the Bihar Assembly elections. Both insisted on jumping into the fire while they were still awake. They kept fighting for tickets, but the issue wasn’t resolved until the elections. They destroyed themselves in the battle of ‘Hum Mir Hum Hum Mir Hum Mir’. Defeat in 11 seats was certain even before the elections. Reviewing the defeat of those who deliberately lost is a mere time pass. The barn does not fill with lies. Instead of blaming each other in the name of review, we should look within ourselves to see what our mistakes were.
Towards a Parting of the Ways
A meeting has already been held in Delhi to review the Congress’s humiliating defeat in the Bihar Assembly elections. Now, a meeting of district presidents was held in Patna to gather feedback on the party’s poor performance. Other district organization leaders also attended this meeting. Reports were taken from each district on the reasons for the party’s defeat. After the meeting, Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee President Rajesh Ram said, “Our alliance with the RJD is only an electoral alliance; it has no organizational basis. The Congress party is expanding its organization to strengthen itself. There has been no discussion between the Congress and the RJD after the elections. Whether they will form a joint strategy as an opposition party is also unclear.”
What did we gain from this reluctant alliance?
There is a Bhojpuri saying: “Beman ke biyah kanpatiye senur” (unwillingly applied vermilion to the temple in the marriage). The alliance between RJD, Congress, and the Left parties was similar. Seat sharing is always clear in any electoral alliance. If a friendly fight ensues, it indicates a lack of trust among the constituent parties. Deception is inherent in the intentions. How did such powerful leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav agree to a friendly fight on 11 seats? If they had strictly adhered to alliance principles, would this have happened? Would any Congress candidate have had the courage to ignore Rahul Gandhi’s request? Is there any RJD leader who would disobey Tejashwi Yadav’s orders? But neither party made a sincere effort to avoid a friendly fight.
Congress defeated RJD in Vaishali
How could a heart break when a stone collides with glass? Glass collided with a stone, and it was bound to break, and it did. In 11 seats, the Grand Alliance hurled stones at each other’s glass houses. In the Vaishali seat, RJD’s Ajay Kumar and Congress’s Sanjeev Singh fought each other. JDU’s Siddharth Patel won. JDU defeated RJD by a huge margin of around 32,000 votes. Sanjeev Singh came in third. Clearly, if Congress had not contested this seat, RJD could have had the upper hand. Meaning, Congress defeated RJD.
CPI defeated Congress in Rajapakad
Congress’s Pratima Kumari and CPI’s Mohit Paswan contested the Rajapakad seat. However, JDU’s Mahendra Ram won. Mahendra Ram defeated Congress’s Pratima Kumari by a huge margin of 41,000 votes. CPI’s Mohit Paswan came in third. CPI defeated Congress in this seat. In the Beldaur seat, Congress’s Mithilesh Nishad and IIP’s Tanisha Bharti were contesting against each other. JDU’s Panna Singh Patel emerged victorious. Panna Singh Patel defeated Congress’s Mithilesh Nishad by around 35,000 votes. IIP defeated Congress in this seat.
Congress defeats RJD in Kahalgaon
In the Kahalgaon seat, Congress’s Praveen Singh Kushwaha and RJD’s Rajneesh Bharti were contesting against each other. Both lost the election, and JDU’s Shubhanand Mukesh emerged victorious. Shubhanand defeated RJD’s Rajneesh Bharti by over 50,000 votes. Congress defeated RJD in this seat, finishing fourth. Clearly, Congress should not have contested this seat. Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in the Sultanganj seat. Congress candidate Lalan Kumar received only 2,754 votes. Despite being weak, Congress insisted on contesting this seat. As a result, RJD’s Chandan Sinha’s position deteriorated. Seeing the two allies fighting each other, the public turned to JDU’s Lalit Narayan Mandal. Lalit Mandal defeated RJD’s Chandan Sinha by over 31,000 votes.
VIP defeats RJD in Chainpur
Mukesh Sahni’s stubbornness led to RJD’s defeat in the Chainpur seat. Brijkishore Bind of RJD and Balgovind Bind of VIP were fighting amongst themselves on this seat. Balgovind Bind is the state president of VIP. Mukesh Sahni forcibly fielded his own candidate on this seat. But the public gave a befitting reply to Mukesh Sahni. Balgovind Bind of VIP slipped to seventh place. This shows how big a leader Mukesh Sahni is of the Nishad community. Mahendra Gupta of CPI sank the boat of Santosh Mishra of Congress on Karhagar seat. Santosh Mishra was a sitting MLA. Both were defeated badly. BSP came second. Vashisht Singh of JDU won the election here.
CPI defeated RJD in Bihar Sharif.
Similarly, in the Bihar Sharif seat, CPI’s Shivkumar Yadav defeated Congress’s Umaid Khan. In the Bachhwara seat, CPI’s Awadhesh Rai defeated Congress’s Garib Das. BJP’s Surendra Mehta won this seat. In the Narkatiaganj seat, RJD’s Shashwat Kedar defeated RJD’s Deepak Yadav. BJP won this seat. In the Sikandra seat, Congress’s Vinod Chaudhary defeated RJD’s Uday Narayan Chaudhary. HAM’s Praful Manjhi won this seat. Congress finished fifth in Sikandra. When Congress, RJD, CPI, VIP, and IIP spent their energy trying to defeat each other, why is a meeting being held to find the reason for the defeat? It seems that perhaps a scapegoat may be found to save the honor of some senior leaders; this is the gist of the meeting.
Authored by: Ashok Kumar Sharma•Edited by: Rishikesh Narayan Singh
About the Author
Ashok Kumar Sharma is a senior journalist with over three decades of experience in journalism. He understands Bihar’s politics and society well and analyzes the changes taking place within them with a keen eye. He has done special reporting on the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Bihar.
Courtesy: Hindi News