Friendly fights, caste polarisation and arrogance of allies hurt Mahagathbandhan

Patna: A national party like the Congress suffered an adverse electoral impact because it became excessively caste-driven in its focus on OBCs and EBCs.

During the elections, leaders from outside the party and an MP from another party grabbed tickets during candidate selection, sidelining local workers throughout the campaign.

The announcement of Tejashwi Yadav as Chief Minister and Mukesh Sahani as Deputy Chief Minister also pushed the Congress out of the electoral contest. Handing over the Bihar election completely to Tejashwi Yadav, without keeping any control over him, became a major reason for the Mahagathbandhan’s shameful defeat.

Mahagathbandhan chief Tejashwi Yadav campaigned only with Mukesh Sahani and IP Gupta, fuelling caste polarisation through backwards–forward politics, which had a severely negative impact on the election results. The people of the state once again rejected Tejashwi’s caste-based politics.

The alliance also suffered major losses due to “friendly fights” in several seats, which happened because of Tejashwi Yadav’s obstinacy and arrogance. Throughout the election, he did not listen to allies in Congress even once, forcing the party to accept his rigid stance.

Congress strategists kept local leaders and workers away from the party’s campaign. Instead, leaders from outside the state were entrusted with campaign responsibilities, despite having no connection with party candidates or grassroots workers; as a result, the Congress campaign failed to take off properly.

There was already deep resentment among party workers over outsiders being fielded as candidates. The state leadership and those in charge failed to manage this anger, which further harmed the party’s performance.

On behalf of Congress members and workers in Bihar, we request Rahul Gandhi to investigate the severe irregularities in ticket distribution and the weakening of the campaign, and to fix accountability on those responsible accountable. They should be blacklisted and removed from the party to ensure they cannot sabotage elections in other states in the future.

Strict action must be taken against all leaders responsible for damaging the future of the Bihar Congress, and they should be shown the door. Going forward, the party should completely stop alliance-based strategies and focus on rebuilding Congress independently; otherwise, the party may soon face complete collapse.

On behalf of Congress members and workers of Bihar, I appeal to Rahul Gandhi that if he wants to rebuild the party at the national level, he must consider making changes in the party’s strategy.

[Disclaimer: Kishore Kumar Jha is a senior Bihar Congress leader. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not represent NewsDrum.in, which bears no responsibility for the content.]