The Congress in Bihar is undergoing both transition and turmoil as the party works ahead trying to bring all its warring factions together and distribute tickets to deserving, winnable candidates in all the 243 Assembly constituencies in the state.
On Saturday, rebel JD(U) MP and chief minister Nitish Kumar’s friend-turned-foe Rajiv Ranjan Singh, alias Lallan Singh, publicly announced that he would join the Congress. While Mr Singh’s announcement, made at a large public meeting in the southern district of Lakhiserai, marked a major transition for the grand old party’s configuration in Bihar, a convention of Congress leaders in Patna was marred by unseemly protests against the current and previous state chiefs, signalling the turmoil within.
Mr Singh, considered to be an influential leader from the Bhumihar upper caste, said in his Lakhiserai address that both Bihar’s prominent parties like the JD(U), RJD and LJP are “too regional, personality-based organisations without any ideology and internal democracy”.
At this rally, christened, “Nitish raj hatao, Bihar bachaao” (End Nitish rule and save Bihar), Mr Singh said he would join the Congress because “only a truly national party can bring about the state’s progress”.
While it is still unclear how beneficial Mr Singh would prove to the Congress in Bihar’s Assembly polls, slated for November, and to what extent the upper-caste votes would swing to the party because of his joining, most Congress leaders agree that the party’s anti-Nitish stand would certainly get a shot in the arms by Mr Singh’s induction.
At the Patna meeting of Congress district and block presidents, chaos prevailed as many party activists in the audience shouted slogans against Congress state president Mehboob Ali Kaiser and his predecessor Anil Sharma in presence of the AICC in-charge of Bihar and Union minister, Mukul Wasnik, and many senior leaders. Anil Sharma, who alleged in his address that ticket distribution was currently lacking proper assessment, was prevented from speaking. Congress sources said Mr Singh’s arrival in the party might also further intensify the simmering factionalism. A JD(U) MLC, Shambhu Sharan Srivastava, close to Singh, is likely to join the Congress.