Rumblings in Mahagathbandhan days after Congress' poor show in Bihar Assembly polls

With Congress' poor performance in Bihar polls pulling down the RJD-led Grand Alliance, daggers are out. In fact the call for introspection came from the party backyard itself with former Union minister and AICC General Secretary Tariq Anwar taking to social media asking for "accepting the reality".

Anwar, who was in past also the president of Bihar Congress and a tall leader from Katihar in the Seemanchal region where Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM has won five seats denting the prospects of RJD-Congress, said: "We should accept the truth. Bihar could not have a government of the Mahagathbandhan because of our poor performance. Congress must introspect on this issue where it erred."

Reflecting the concern in the Congress about AIMIM, which has now decided to contest Assembly polls in West Bengal in 2021 and Uttar Pradesh in 2020, cornering away Muslims vote Anwar felt that the entry of MIM in Bihar is "not a good omen".

In fact as soon as the results were out, the former AICC Secretary mouthed a vitriolic attack against party leaders, including AICC general secretary in-charge for Bihar Shaktisinh Gohil, the chairman of the AICC screening committee for Bihar Avinash Pandey and Congress Legislature Party leader of Bihar Sadanand Singh, accusing them of 'fielding weak candidates' with ulterior motives.

In Bihar while the BJP increased its strike rate from 33.75% in 2015 to 67.3% in 2020, the Congress came down by more than half of its last performance. While it had recorded a strike rate of 65.85% in the 2015 polls winning 27 of 45 seats it had contested then, its strike rate declined to nearly 27% in 2020.

While the Mahagathbandhan's Chief Ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav maintained the poise refusing to go into the issue of which party of the Grand Alliance getting how many seats, RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari did not hold his fire accusing the Congress of "arm twisting" the RJD and going to the extent of threatening even walk out of the alliance to secure 70 seats for itself on which it could not perform.

Terming the Congress response to Bihar polls very lacklustre (thanda), Tiwari pointed out that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed only two rallies in the state. "The high command of Congress did not take the Bihar election seriously," he said.

CPI-ML leader Dipankar Bhattacharya also felt that instead of Congress contesting on 70 seats, the Left and RJD contesting more seats could have ensured a better result while CPM leader Sitram Yechury said had the Left and Congress contested equal numbers of seats, MGB would have been in power. "Apparently, 70 assembly segments in Bihar were too much to handle for the Congress," said Bhattacharya.

Congress, which contested 70 seats, managed to win only 19 seats. On the other hand, CPI-ML, which contested 19 seats won 12 and CPI and CPI-M two each of the six and for they contested respectively.

In 2017 UP polls, Congress had entered into an alliance the with Samajwadi Party (SP). Out of 403 seats, SP contested on 298 and Congress on 105. The alliance lost but while the Samajwadi Party won 47 seats, Congress could win only 07 seats. The BSP, which contested alone, had won 19 seats in the one-sided election in which the BJP scored its biggest victory of 312 seats.

A grand alliance of SP-BSP and Congress could not be formalised in UP despite a successful example in 2015 in Bihar where a combined alliance of RJD, JD(U) and Congress had defeated the BJP-led NDA. In the 2020 Bihar alliance, three parties—Upendra Kushwaha-led RLSP, Mukesh Sahani led VIP, and Jitan Ram Manjhi-led HAM—which wanted an alliance with the RJD earlier quit the alliance and the RJD did not make much effort to retain them. On the contrary the RJD entertained Congress with much care and cushion.

Political analyst Rasheed Kidwai says "Tactical error is on the part of Tejashwi as well. Allies which left the MGB were to be handled by Tejashwi, as he was the leader of the alliance not Congress. Being a veteran Lalu Prasad would have handled the situation better. Also we should not ignore that a large number of seats, the Congress contested on were not winnable for it, being the strongholds of the BJP."

Analysts also believe that this dilemma of the Congress to choose between "building the party" and "defeating the BJP", between which it keeps on vacillating is the main reason why it opts to contest on large number of seats in UP and Bihar, the states which it had ruled for decades till the rise of the caste based parties.