Patna: The Congress Thursday hosted a function to celebrate the 136th birth anniversary of Bihar’s first chief minister Shri Krishna Singh at its state headquarters at Patna’s Sadaquat Ashram. While the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad was in attendance and gave a speech at the event, Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar was conspicuous by his absence.
Nitish, the state’s chief minister and leader of Bihar’s ruling Mahagathbandhan — that comprises the JD(U), Congress, RJD and other smaller parties — was invited, party sources told ThePrint.
The three parties are also part of the opposition INDIA alliance that plans to take on the BJP-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) at the Centre in the general elections next year.
On Friday, the Congress officially denied that Nitish had been invited. “To the best of my knowledge, the CM was not invited,” Anand Madhav, media in-charge of the Bihar Congress, told ThePrint.
Former Congress minister Kripanath Pathak said, “it was not a function of the alliance”. “It was a Congress function in which we decided to make Lalu Prasad the chief guest. When the time comes for elections, we will be together,” he added.
Privately, however, party leaders admitted that Nitish had been invited. “But he ignored the invitation,” a senior Congress leader, who wished to not be named, told ThePrint.
A Congress source also said many senior leaders were upset over the invitation to Lalu.
The fact that Nitish did not turn up at the event hints at cooling of the relationship between the Congress and the JD(U), especially since the latter Tuesday announced that it was fielding five candidates for next month’s state polls in Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress is trying to wrest power from the BJP.
The JD(U)’s nomination of candidates will only add to the woes of the Congress which is also facing a challenge from other INDIA alliance partners — AAP and Samajwadi Party — in the state. The RJD, on the other hand, has refrained from contesting in Madhya Pradesh.
On its part, the JD(U) tried to play down Nitish’s absence from the Congress event.
Speaking to ThePrint about the same, JD(U) minister Ashok Choudhary said Friday, “The RJD is an older friend of the Congress than we are.”
Another minister, Sanjay Jha, said: “Even when we [JD(U)] were with the NDA, we used to contest against the BJP outside the state.”
He pointed out that “Nitish started the process of formation of the Opposition alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls”.
A third JD(U) minister said the party had reason to be upset with the Congress “for sidelining Nitish at the Mumbai meet (of INDIA alliance).”
“Had the Congress been wiser, it could have used Nitish Kumar to influence Bihari voters in Madhya Pradesh. But the Congress has become so arrogant that it does not see beyond itself,” said the minister.
Meanwhile, the BJP has said that Lalu being made the chief guest should worry Nitish.
“The growing closeness between the RJD and the Congress is a ploy to take seats away from the JD(U) in Lok Sabha polls”, remarked BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi, adding that the Congress had allegedly insulted the first CM of Bihar by inviting Lalu since all the factories started during Shri Krishna Singh’s tenure closed during that of Lalu and Rabri.
Lalu ‘more important’
Congress leaders believe that Lalu is more important for the party than Nitish in Bihar.
At Thursday’s function, Lalu was presented with a gold-plated crown and gained much applause for his speech and announcement that the INDIA alliance would hold a rally in the city’s Gandhi Maidan.
Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats, of which the Congress reportedly wants to contest on 10. However, the party does not have a vote-bank of its own in Bihar anymore.
“We are likely to settle for less than that number, but we realise that it will be basically on Lalu’s vote-bank that Congress candidates can hope to win,” a senior Congress leader told ThePrint.
The Congress previously drew the upper castes, Muslims and Dalit votes in Bihar but after 1990, these groups shifted loyalties to the RJD or the BJP. The 2019 Lok Sabha polls were a sure marker of how the Congress’s vote-bank had depleted when the party contested eight seats in the state but won only one — Kishanganj.
Muslims and Yadavs, who make up around 34 percent of the state’s population, according to the caste survey released this year, are drawn to Lalu. “Several senior Congress leaders wishing to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, including state Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh, have to keep Lalu in good humour,” said the senior Congress leader.
Nitish and the Congress have had a hot and cold relationship. In the 2015 assembly polls, he ensured that the Congress got 41 seats to contest (out of 243), while the JD(U) and the RJD contested 101 each in the then grand alliance, even as Lalu remarked that doing so meant giving them to the BJP, said JD(U) sources. Yet, as relations between Lalu and Nitish strained, the Congress opted to back Lalu as a more reliable partner.
Since last year, when Lalu and Nitish came back together, the latter has more or less ignored the Congress, refusing the party two more berths in the ministry that it has been publicly demanding.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)