It was a meeting with difference. Usually the organisational meetings are held to project a leader or strategize the policies and ideas. But the June 15 meeting convened by Krishna Allavaru, a close aide of Rahul Gandhi and in-charge of Bihar where Assembly elections, turned out to be combat turf with the former state unit chief Akhilesh Singh, known to be a protégé of RJD chief Lalu Yadav openly repudiating Rahul’s electoral strategy.
The 150 odd Congress MLAs, MPs and senior party functionaries present at the meet were taken back with Akhilesh outright questioning the relevance of Rahul’s strategy to reach out to the Dalits, OBCs and EBCs. The primary agenda of the meet was to finalize its list of desired seats for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, to be submitted to RJD leader. The major issue of the leadership was to nominate the candidates from these communities. Vitriolic jibes from Akhilesh nevertheless shifted the attention of the leaders present at the meet.
Akhilesh since his removal has been keeping distance from the party and its programmes. He even preferred to abstain from Rahul’s last public meeting. But he chose to attend the June 15 meeting. His presence turned the leaders apprehensive of any concrete outcome. He had come with a specific brief and mission. The meeting was to assign responsibilities to the party legislators as instructed by Rahul Gandhi, who is making efforts to revive and strengthen the party at the grassroots level for the Bihar assembly elections due this year.
The meeting was also to finalise the number of seats the party would contest and also to identify constituencies where it believes its candidates stand a strong chance of winning in the upcoming state elections scheduled in October/November this year. Before this agenda could be taken for discussion Akhilesh accused Allavaru, the state president Rajesh Ram and other dalit and OBC and EBC leaders of neglecting the upper caste supporters, cadres and leaders of the party.
He sought to know whether the state leaders can provide an explicit assurance that they can motivate the voters of these communities to vote for Congress. He was quite aggressive in claiming that they were determined to finish the Congress in the state. He alleged that these leaders even cannot guarantee the votes of their own castes, they will force the upper caste to desert to BJP. He suggested to drop the latest policy and pursue the old line.
The meeting was convened in the backdrop of recent directives of the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) coordination committee, which at its June 12 meeting asked all alliance partners to submit their preferred seats and list constituencies soon, preferably by July 5, when the fifth coordination meet would be held.
For the leaders participating at the meet it was not at all a rocket science to comprehend what he meant and whose mind he was speaking. Even a small time political worker is aware of the fact that he has been the plant of Lalu Yadav. In 2020, the Congress went to the assembly polls under his leadership. It had contested 70 seats as part of the grand alliance but secured only 19, despite garnering a 9.48% vote share. In the 9.48 percent of votes, Dalits, OBCs and EBCs had also their shares. It is not that it featured the votes of only upper castes. Experts claim that merely 4 per cent of the upper castes, especially Brahmins and Kayasthas voted for Congress. Akhilesh even could not motivate his own caste men, upper caste Bhumihars, to vote for Congress.
Though his supporters claim that he is the Bhumihar face in Bihar, it is strongly refuted by the Bhumihar leaders of BJP and JD(U). The status is being enjoyed by union minister Giriraj Singh, a close associate of Narendra Modi.
Primarily haunted by the sense of scepticism RJD brought in Mangani Lal Mandal as the state RJD chief in place of Rajput stalwart Jagadanand Singh, an all season friend of Lalu for more than sixty years. It is a known fact that Mangani has not been a dependent and trusted friend of Lalu. Even then he was assigned the task only at the suggestion of Tejashvi. Mangani has been a party hopper. He is known for frequently shifting his loyalty. He was with Nitish Kumar and even held the number two position.. Before that he was with Lalu but switched to JD(U) for getting elected to Rajya Sabha.
The only tenable reason for upgrading Mangani is his dalit credential. But Lalu undoubtedly has committed a mistake.. The sources maintain the perceptible shift in the approach and attitude of Dalits, OBCs and EBCs had turned duo, Lalu and Tejashvi, apprehensive of the change in power equation in the INDIA bloc. The experts view aggressiveness of Akhilesh as the pointer to Congress strengthening its support base amongst these communities. What has unnerved the father -son combination is silence of Congress on the issue of the chief ministerial candidate of INDIA bloc, though the coordination committee in principle has endorsed Tejashvi’s candidature.
Meanwhile in a fast developing political scenario, some senior state Congress leaders say that the national leadership does not find any fault with the state leaders and have conveyed to them to move ahead with their policies and programmes. They have been advised to keep a watch on the activities of Akhilesh and leaders advocating his line. They also seek to know if the old policy of Congress was conducive to the interest of the upper castes, why the past Congress leaders could not motivate the upper caste people to vote for the party. Ironically the party had turned irrelevant and pushed to the extreme low position while Akhilesh was at the helm. (IPA Service)
