RJD snubs Congress in Bihar legislative council polls

Rashtriya Janata Dal workers and leaders (Image: ANI)

Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has slammed its doors shut on the possibility of any understanding with the Congress, its estranged ally, for the elections to 24 seats of the legislative council in Bihar.

State RJD president Jagadanand Singh on Saturday announced its candidates for two seats, having done the same for 21 others a week ago, and declared that it was leaving one for the Left parties.

Elections to the two dozen seats, vacant for quite some time, are expected in March or April. The development came barely a day after Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra came out in support of Prasad, who is in jail after conviction in yet another fodder scam case.

He was held guilty in the Doranda Treasury case by a special CBI court at Ranchi on February 15. Three days later, Vadra came out with a tweet in Hindi, alleging that Prasad was a victim of BJP's political vendetta and praying for justice to the septuagenarian leader.

Prasad's son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav promptly replied with a "thank you". Speculations were rife that the exchange of niceties in the virtual world would be followed by a softening of stance by the RJD, which says it is committed to supporting the Congress "at the Centre" though finding it no longer worthy of an electoral collaboration in the state.

Ties between the RJD and Congress are two decades old, and Prasad's loyalists keep reminding those in the grand old party that their leader had come out in support of Sonia Gandhi when she was facing stiff opposition on account of her foreign origin. The two parties, along with the CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(ML) had formed a Grand Alliance to contest the 2020 assembly polls.

The RJD returned with the highest tally for any party in the state and the Left also performed beyond expectations, though the five-party formation fell short of majority. The blame was apportioned on the Congress, which contested 70 seats but won fewer than 20, and RJD leaders have been accusing its junior ally of having been "not serious" in the assembly elections.

They have been pointing out that Vadra did not canvas in Bihar at all despite having been named a star campaigner while Rahul Gandhi took time off for only half a dozen rallies, though Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a far greater number of election meetings.

A flashpoint was reached when in October last year the RJD took a unilateral decision to contest by-polls for two assembly seats, saying it did not want to lose the contest by leaving either seat for the Congress.

The RJD lost both seats, while the Congress has been licking its wounds, alleging that the Grand Alliance was taken apart by the domineering ally and threatening to go it alone in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.