Bihar bypolls: It's Kanhaiya vs Tejaswi as Congress, RJD cross swords

RJD scion Tejaswi Yadav and Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar are locked in an intense fight for the upcoming Bihar by-polls to Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur seats, and firebrand orator Kanhaiya, newly inducted in the Grand Old Party, has to play his cards deftly to emerge as a formidable future leader.

Both the RJD and Congress have fielded their own candidates on the two seats, while the Congress in-charge of Bihar, Bhakt Charan Das, on Friday announced that the party was no more part of the mahagathbandhan – a grand alliance that has been fragile ever since Kanhaiya joined the Congress.

By-polls to the two seats were necessitated following the deaths of incumbent JD(U) MLAs. Votes for both seats will be cast on October 30.

A political commentator not wishing to be named said, “It will be Kanhaiya’s first electoral battle against Tejaswi after he joined the Congress and he has to improve the victory chances of his party’s candidates to prove his political mettle.”

Talking about Kanhaiya’s chance of emerging as a youth icon, commentator Indrajit Singh said: “Kanhaiya Kumar has taken a risk and if it goes off well, he will definitely pose a challenge to Tejaswi Yadav who is so far the undisputed leader of the mahagathbandhan.”

Kanhaiya lost much of his political sheen after his ignominious defeat in Bihar’s Begusarai despite a high-voltage campaign by Bollywood stars and intellectuals in the last Lok Sabha election. He had contested the election on a CPI ticket against BJP firebrand leader Giriraj Singh.

On the other hand, Tejaswi has succeeded in wielding considerable political clout, particularly after his RJD emerged as the single largest party under his stewardship in the previous Bihar Assembly election.

It should also not be forgotten how RJD chief Lalu Prasad fielded a candidate from his party in Begusarai to dampen the chances of Kanhaiya’s victory in the previous Lok Sabha election and scuttle chances of his emergence as a challenger to his son, Tejaswi. So, now the onus lies on Kanhaiya to prove his political prowess as he faces his old rival.

Kanhaiya along with Gujarat Congress working president Hardik Patel and Independent MLA from Gujarat, Jignesh Mevani, who has pledged his support to the Congress, reached Patna on Friday to campaign for the by-polls.

Later, addressing party workers and leaders at the Congress headquarters, Sadaquat Ashram, Kanhaiya took a dig at Tejaswi without taking his name, saying that he himself had no political background or history and no family member whose name could help him promote his politics.

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He called himself the son of a common person whom only a leader like Rahul Gandhi could take into his party fold, along with Mevani.

Kanhaiya also launched an attack on RJD for its casteist politics, saying people would no more fall into the trap of caste equations.

Political analyst Kamal Kant Sahay said: “While Kanhaiya appears to be in full swing, Tejaswi cannot afford to counter him during the campaign for the by-polls in the same tone and tenor as he has to target the NDA to wrest both seats. At the same time, other RJD leaders may target Kanhaiya to keep the ground clean for Tejaswi.”

RJD bemused as Congress seeks to shake dust off its feet

Unlike the Bihar NDA that has been frequently rocked by differences between the BJP and Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) on certain issues ever since the formation of the new government in the state, the mahagathbandhan, which also comprises several Left parties, was considered a more cohesive coalition till the RJD and Congress crossed paths in the bye-elections.

The Bihar Congress, which has been piggybacking on the RJD all these years for its electoral successes, has now started attacking the party quite belligerently.

Much to the anguish of the RJD, Bihar Congress in-charge Das told the media on Friday that the party would contest on all 40 seats in Bihar in the next Lok Sabha election. He also alleged that the RJD broke the grand alliance with the Congress as it is considering entering into an alliance with communal forces (an oblique reference to BJP) after the electoral exercise is over.

“Alliance with the RJD collapsed after the party decided to contest the Kusheshwar Asthan Assembly seat, a traditional bastion of the Congress,” Das told reporters.

Sharply responding to the Congress leader’s accusation, Rajya Sabha MP and RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha called him a political novice. “Bhakta Charan Das’ comments are ridiculous and also unfortunate. He does not have any knowledge about politics and social nature of the state. He should have some knowledge about Bihar before taking the assignment of Congress in-charge in the state,” Jha said.

RJD’s relations with the Congress got strained after the former fielded candidates from Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur seats without consulting its ally.

Not lying low, the Congress also fielded candidates against the RJD on both seats and since then a verbal duel between them is on. Even when the RJD sought to downplay the electoral battle between two allies on both seats by calling it a friendly contest, the Congress affirmed that it was contesting the bye-elections with the sole objective to win – rejecting RJD’s friendly contest theory.

The RJD also sharpened its attack on the Congress by contending that it (RJD) was the only party that could defeat the NDA in the by-polls.

As the two old allies flex their muscles before the Assembly by-polls, it has to be seen whether the two parties make it a no-holds-barred battle, leading to break-up of the grand alliance itself or just a ploy to improve their chances of victory in the hustings.

A political analyst, Dr Sanjay Kumar, said differences between the RJD and Congress will not impact the grand alliance in any manner. “We have seen such posturings by the RJD and Congress in the past too but they didn’t part ways,” he said.

Teaching a lesson?

 Despite the fact that the RJD and Congress need each other, the RJD is seemingly still annoyed with Congress as the latter could win only 19 of the 70 seats it contested in the last Assembly election.

If Congress’ performance is compared with that of another ally of the grand alliance, the CPI (ML), its strike rate was much better as it won 12 of the 19 seats it contested.

“It is true that the RJD will not concede seats to the Congress as per its demand after the latter’s unsatisfactory performance in the last election,” Kumar remarked.

Defending his party’s performance, Congress’ Das told the media that his party was wrongly blamed for not performing well.

He said there were 26 seats which the RJD had traditionally contested but palmed off to the Congress just before the election, and so it couldn’t recover the seats. On 16 other seats, RJD votes were not transferred to his party, Das explained.

According to one political analyst, it is difficult to say whether the RJD wanted to teach a lesson to the Congress by fielding its own candidate in Kusheshwar Asthan, but the party has also not forgotten how it missed the chance to form a government in Bihar due to poor performance by its ally.

Will Lalu sons’ rivalry impact by-polls?

The face-off between RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s sons – Tejaswi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav – may have bearing on the by-polls as the latter is supporting the Congress candidate in Kusheshwar Asthan.

Political analyst Dr Kumar believes Tej Pratap will fail to make any impact on the result of Kusheshwar Asthan.

“In Tarapur constituency, Tej Pratap is supporting the RJD candidate but it is too early to say whether his campaigning will help the candidate in any significant manner,” added a senior journalist.

Tej Pratap himself told the media that “after studying the current political situation in the elections to be held in Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur, Chhatra Janshakti Parishad (an outfit launched by Tej Pratap recently) has decided to extend its support to Congress candidate Atirek Kumar from Kusheshwar Asthan and RJD candidate Arun Kumar from Tarapur. Students associated with the Chhatra Janshakt Parishad should strongly campaign for both candidates in their respective constituencies and ensure their victory”.

Also read: Kanhaiya Kumar joins Cong to ‘save country’; Mevani extends solidarity