The Congress has appointed at least half-a-dozen party leaders from Maharashtra as the central observers for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections at a time when the Raj Thackeray-led party has moved closer to it in Maharashtra.
MLAs belonging to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena led by Mr Raj Thackeray had voted for the Congress-NCP nominees in the recently-held Maharashtra Legislative Council elections. This was disclosed by Mr Thackeray himself in Mumbai a few days back. His party’s help was crucial in the sense that the Congress’ votes got split in the elections.
The central observers to be deputed for Bihar include Mr Subodh Mohite, Mr Mohan Joshi, Mr Ranjan Bhonsale, Mr Haribhau Rathod, Mr Sunil Kedar, Mr Hussain Dalwai and Mr Rajendra Mulak.
While Mr Mohite is a former Shiv Sena MP, Mr Rathod had voted for the Congress in the 14th Lok Sabha when the Left had withdrawn their support to the Manmohan Singh government on the nuclear deal with the US in July 2008. That time he was a BJP member. Both Mr Mohite and Mr Rathod are now in charge for Rohtas/Sasaram and Araria districts.
Mr Mohan Joshi, MLC, will take care of Buxar district while Mr Rajan Bhosale, who is the MPCC general secretary, is the observer for Gaya.
Newly-elected MLC Hussain Dalwai would camp in Purnea while Mr Rajendra Mulak, MLC, will stay at Katihar. Mr Sunil Kedar, MLA, is the observer for Kishangunj district. It will be interesting to see how the Congress observers from Maharashtra would perform in Bihar. This is because RJD supremo Lalu Yadav would play both the Narendra Modi and Raj Thackeray cards in this battle to embarrass chief minister Nitish Kumar and the Congress.