Congress MP slams Bihar top brass for party's poor health in state, Rahul Gandhi responds

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has reportedly responded to one of his party and parliamentary colleagues over her alarming claim that the party has weakened in Bihar largely because of people who lead it in that state.

The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha has told Ranjeet Ranjan, who is a member of the Rajya Sabha, that it was also her responsibility to strengthen the Grand-old Party in the eastern state and that she had never brought up the matter before the high command.

High command meets Bihar leaders

The high command had called an emergency meeting of its Bihar leadership in New Delhi on Friday (January 23) after reports surfaced saying that all six elected Congress MLAs in the state might switch to the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) that swept the Assembly elections last November.

The speculations were adequate to discomfit the high command, which was left red-faced by the electoral performance despite Rahul’s high-voltage Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar last year that garnered a visible traction.

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The political movement was staged to protest the alleged disenfranchisement of several thousand voters in Bihar under the Special Intensive Revision and theft of mandate that the Opposition accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of. Even the Election Commission was not spared.

However, it seems all that is long drowned in history now.

'We are all Congressi and will remain so'

Sources said that during Friday’s meeting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge asked all six legislators from Bihar, who were present, whether they were leaving the party. They replied negatively in unison, saying they “are all Congressi and will remain so”. The president later said that the episode was the creation of the media, the sources added.

RS MP raises serious allegations

Insiders said that Ranjan, who is currently a Rajya Sabha MP from Chhattisgarh and has been a member of the Lower House from Bihar in the past, alleged during the meeting that the Congress has “largely been weakened” in Bihar and is virtually non-existent on the ground.

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It was then that Rahul said that she should have taken care of the situation if she had felt so and focused on strengthening the party’s organisation in that state. He also told Ranjan that she hadn’t brought such a state of affairs to the notice of the high command earlier, informed sources said.

Ranjan also advised the high command that accountability should be demanded from those at the helm of the party in Bihar. The Congress suffered such a debacle in the last Assembly elections that even its state president, Rajesh Ram, lost in his constituency, Kutumba, which he won in 2015 and 2020. Rajesh was also present at the meeting, along with KC Venugopal, the Congress's general-secretary (organisation).

When The Federal reached out to Ranjan to know more about her remarks, she refused to divulge details, saying it is the party's internal matter.

Ram didn’t pick up calls from The Federal either.

No CLP leader in Bihar yet

Friday’s meeting also featured the issue of selecting the Congress’s Legislature Party (CLP) leader in the Bihar Assembly. The post has remained vacant for a long time, and the state-level leaders have failed to arrive at an agreement. Sources said the ball has now been pushed to the court of the high command, and a final decision might be made before February 2, when the new Bihar Assembly’s Budget Session would begin.

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The leaders also discussed matters such as organisational structures and public issues in Bihar. The high command asked the state leadership to target the Nitish Kumar-led government over its alleged failures and on issues such as the repeal of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The state leadership also suggested to the party’s brains in Delhi that besides the backward and marginalised sections in Bihar, the party should also take along with the state’s forward castes.