What is there in an assembly bypoll seat whose result will have little bearing on the overall political situation in the state? A lot apparently, if it is in Bihar and the answer may well lie in the grudge the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) holds against the Congress since the 2020 state assembly election loss.
Lalu Prasad’s statement on Sunday before leaving for Patna that “should we give the seat to Congress to lose the deposit” has strained RJD-Congress ties further after both allies decided to put up candidates on the two assembly bypoll seats, Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur, which will go to the polls on October 30. Both seats are held by the Janata Dal (United).
The contentious seat of the two is Kusheshwar Asthan in the Samastipur district which the Congress has never won since 1985 but still considers as its fiefdom. “Lalu Prasad’s statement is not based on facts. In the 2020 elections, Congress lost this seat to JD (U) by only 7,000 votes and we got over 46,000 votes,” a Bihar Congress leader said, not wishing to be identified.
But Lalu Prasad’s statement is in the larger context of the pain RJD went through on account of the Congress in the 2020 election loss and the refrain that RJD gave too many seats to the Congress, which led to the alliance falling short of the majority mark, RJD insiders say. It is that pain from 2020 which is reflecting, RJD insists.
Like an RJD leader said Congress lost its deposits in four of the 70 seats it contested in the alliance and ultimately won only 19. “RJD got nearly 39% votes in the 144 seats we contested and we won 75 seats. CPI (M), our other ally also polled 38% votes in the four seats it contested and won two. But Congress polled only 33% votes in the 70 seats it contested,” the RJD leader explained, pointing to a falling Congress graph.
Dynasty Issue
RJD leaders are also raising the dynasty issue while questioning Congress decision to lay claim over the Kusheshwar Asthan seat, pointing out that the working president of Bihar Congress, Ashok Kumar, has fielded his son Atirek Kumar from the seat as a candidate this time. RJD questions how Atirek will win the seat after his father was the candidate from the seat in 2020 and lost despite RJD’s support. It is a personal ambition, a RJD leader said on the pitch of Kumar father-son duo.
Congress, however, says RJD has no locus standi to raise the dynasty card when the RJD itself is an epitome of the same. “RJD lost the Tarapur seat in the last elections by a similar margin (7,000 votes) to what we lost by in Kusheshwar Asthan. Going by that logic, we have put up our candidate in Tarapur also,” the state Congress leader quoted above said. This fight between both allies seems to be working in the favour of the JD(U), which with BJP’s help, claims it will win both seats.
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