Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram says party to strengthen organisation; issue of alliance with RJD no more relevant

Patna: Bihar Congress president Rajesh Ram on Monday said the party, which suffered a crushing defeat in the recently held state assembly elections, will strengthen the organisation at the district level.

He also said that the issue of continuation of the party’s alliance with the RJD is irrelevant as the understanding between the two is "electoral", and not "organisational".

Ram was briefing the reporters after a meeting with the district Congress committee presidents and heads of various wings and departments of the party to review the election result.

The BJP-led NDA retained power in the state, winning 202 of the total 243 seats, while the INDIA bloc bagged only 35, including six of the Congress and the RJD’s 25.

"Our alliance with the RJD is electoral and not organisational. The question on continuation of the alliance at this point in time is irrelevant as both Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections are four and five years away, respectively," Ram said.

Enumerating the reasons for the INDIA bloc's electoral defeat, the state president of the Congress alleged that the polls were impacted by the actions of the Election Commission and the government.

"All the presidents of district Congress committees said in unison that the election was impacted by the EC and central and state governments in various ways, including financial interventions," he said.

Ram was referring to the welfare and employment generation schemes, including the distribution of Rs 10,000 each to women under the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana, which were implemented just before the polls.

"Cash and other benefits were doled out to people leading up to the date of the polling," he alleged.

The second reason, the state Congress president said, was the "delay in ticket distribution" due to lack of coordination.

"Despite the lapses in coordination, district committee presidents said that there was no reduction in the vote percentage of the Congress and the INDIA bloc," he claimed.

Ram asserted that party leaders and workers have decided to "strengthen the structure of the organisation" at the district level.

"I will myself go to the districts to ensure the restructuring of committees at the micro level. We will identify the party workers who were left behind during the polls, and bring them to the fore," he said.

On the allegations made by state RJD president Mangani Lal Mandal that the Congress was responsible for the poll debacle of the India bloc, Ram said, "If there was a defeat, it was for all the alliance partners; and no single party can be held responsible." "The INDIA bloc has been defeated as a whole, and we have lost due to SIR and cash distribution by the government," he claimed.

Ram argued that "time constraint" during the election phase affected the coordination at the organisation level, and that was also a cause for the defeat.

The state chief urged Congress workers not to be demotivated by the poll results, and "meet the challenge of strengthening the organisation on the ground level".

He said that district committee presidents have "unanimously" agreed to support the anti-SIR rally to be attended by Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge on December 14 in Delhi.