The Congress, an ally in the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan (MGB), won just 19 of the 70 seats it contested in Bihar assembly elections, the results of which were announced in the early hours of Wednesday.
The Congress’s performance was blamed for dragging down the overall tally of MGB, that ended with 110 seats falling short of 12 seats from the magic number 122 in the 243-member Bihar state assembly.
Political analysts had earlier criticised RJD for being generous in giving 70 seats to the Congress, a remark that the party leadership had dismissed.
In 2015, the Congress had won 27 of the 41 seats it contested as part of the MGB that eventually won the elections, but had to sit in Opposition after Nitish Kumar switched sides in 2017.
Many Congress leaders, however, blamed Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) for “cutting” the party’s votes. Of the 20 candidates fielded, the AIMIM won 4 seats and was ruling in another seat in the Bihar election.
“BJP’s art of using Owaisi’s party in Bihar elections has worked. All secular parties should stay alert from vote cutters,” Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was quoted in news websites.
The Congress' strike rate of less than 28 percent at 70 seats it contested is even worse than the Left, the MGB ally, that won 16 seats with a strike rate of 55 percent at 29 seats it contested, many analysts observed.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had campaigned in Bihar in all the three phases.
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