Lalu backs Mamata as INDIA bloc leader; rift appears in Cong-RJD ties ahead of Bihar assembly polls

Patna: With less than a year left for assembly polls in Bihar, a rift appeared in the Congress-RJD alliance on Tuesday when Lalu Prasad threw his weight behind West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, saying she should lead the INDIA bloc.

Prasad, a staunch Congress ally, caused a flutter when he replied in the affirmative to journalists' question about what he thought of the recent averment by Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress chief, who had expressed the wish to lead the opposition alliance.

"Yes, she should lead," said the RJD supremo, who added, "The Congress’ reservations amount to nothing. Mamata should be given the leadership role (Mamata ko do)".

Notably, the brusqueness displayed by Prasad towards Congress came a day after AICC secretary Shahnawaz Alam, who is a co-in charge of Bihar, had hinted that the party was no longer willing to play the role of “little brother” in the Mahagathbandhan, the state’s prototype of the INDIA bloc.

Addressing a Congress function in Khagaria district, Alam had said, “In politics, nobody is a big brother or a little brother. In the assembly polls, the number of seats each party would contest must be decided on the basis of several factors, including the respective strike rates in the Lok Sabha elections”.

The allusion was, apparently, to the dismal performance of the RJD which had contested 23, out of the state’s 40 Lok Sabha seats, winning only four.

On the other hand, the Congress, which was decried as the “weak link” in the Mahagathbandhan in 2020, when the coalition fell short of winning a majority, won three out of the nine seats it had contested.

Alam’s aggressive stance could also be seen in the backdrop of the bad blood that had been created between the two parties, notwithstanding the excellent personal rapport Prasad shared with the Nehru-Gandhi family, as the RJD had unilaterally fielded candidates in a number of seats the Congress was hopeful of contesting.

Most notable among such seats was Purnea, where the Congress faced an embarrassing situation as former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav had joined the party hoping that he would be getting a party ticket.

Yadav, who still swears by his loyalty towards the Congress, won the seat contesting as an Independent, while the RJD candidate finished a distant third.

Meanwhile, the Congress seemed to be in no mood to back down in the face of the pushback from its domineering Bihar ally.

Congress legislative party leader Shakil Ahmed Khan said, “Lalu ji is known to say lots of things casually. Let him place on record his views whenever the INDIA bloc holds its meeting. What does he mean by saying there should be a leadership change? Does he want Rahul Gandhi to be replaced as Leader of the Opposition, a post our leader holds by virtue of the party’s strength in the Lok Sabha?”

Khan also pointed out, "When the INDIA bloc was formed, there was a proposal to make Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar the convenor. He, however, went back to the BJP-led NDA. Our party chief Mallikarjun Kharge was unanimously elected as the chairman of the INDIA bloc."

He also defended Alam’s statement, saying, “Why should we not claim our due? In the assembly polls of 2020, we were given a small share of seats on the ground of our strike rate in the Lok Sabha elections. Now that our performance has improved, we are very much within our right to assert ourselves."

When Alam’s attention was drawn to the controversy triggered by his utterances a day ago, he chose to twist the knife with the remark "those who had attended the gala wedding organised by a business tycoon have a problem with those who had chosen to stay away".

The obvious reference was to the wedding of Mukesh Ambani’s son, which was attended by both Prasad and Banerjee even though Gandhi had chosen to give the slip.

Alam also said, “The Congress is the only party with a nationwide presence. Those eager for a change in leadership are non-entities in big states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. So, it is only natural for the Congress to lead the nationwide coalition."

Inputs from PTI