Congress appoints Rajesh Kumar as chief of its Bihar unit ahead of state polls

New Delhi: With just months left for Assembly elections in Bihar, Congress on Tuesday replaced its state president Akhilesh Prasad Singh with Dalit MLA Rajesh Kumar.

The appointment of the new state president comes a month after the party put a young leader, Krishna Allavaru, as state in-charge. Soon after his appointment, it became clear that Bihar would get a new chief.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge appointed Rajesh Kumar as the president of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee with immediate effect, a statement by the party said.

The choice of a Dalit leader to the top post in the state comes as part of the Congress' Udaipur Declaration to bring in more people from underprivileged backgrounds to the leadership at various levels.

It also comes in the midst of a 'yatra' being undertaken by party leader Kanhaiya Kumar in the state.

A former RJD leader, Singh was also part of the controversial G-23 of leaders who demanded change in leadership in the party but had managed to be appointed as Bihar Congress later.

Among the leadership, sources said Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP, was considered too soft on senior ally RJD in seat negotiations owing to his closeness to his former party boss Lalu Prasad.

In the past weeks, there were indications that Allavaru was pushing for a new chief in the state and Kanhaiya's yatra was planned as a counter to Singh. Allavaru is also said to have consulted Pappu Yadav, an independent MP aligning with the Congress, in reviving the Congress in the state.

The leadership had earlier scheduled a meeting of Bihar leaders on March 5 and then on March 12 to finetune the strategy for the Assembly elections but they were postponed.

With a new president in the saddle, the meeting is now likely to take place soon and its outcome would be keenly watched. It is to be seen how Kumar can negotiate with RJD, especially after the Congress faced flak for its dismal strike rate – winning just 19 of 70 seats contested – in 2020.

Congress has been complaining that most of the seats given to them in 2020 were not winnable, as either RJD or Congress had not emerged victorious in these constituencies for years. This time, sources said, a section of Congress leaders are demanding that the party should insist on winnable seats.

There has been tension between RJD and Congress with mid-level leaders in the latter mincing no words by claiming that the Lalu-led party was trying to undermine them and it should bargain hard during seat negotiations.