Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav broke his silence over the alliance with the Congress party and said that RJD leaders will lose their deposits if they remain in alliance with INC. Speaking to reporters while on his way to Patna, Yadav said – “What is Congress’ alliance? Would we have left everything to Congress for a loss? For losing deposits?” There are reports that Yadav could be campaigning for the forthcoming by-polls.
Less than a year after their alliance 94 seats, the RJD and Congress alliance is on the brink of a collapse. The larger, five-party collaboration including the two parties won 10 seats short of the majority in the Assembly polls. In what has set rumour mills rolling is the recent comment by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Bihar, who said that the Congress will contest all the 40 seats in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024.
State RJD president Jagadanand Singh, however, said that the Lok Sabha elections are in 2024 and that there was no point in talking about the polls ‘now’.
RJD reportedly fielded candidates for by-polls without consulting Congress: Reports
The ongoing spat began when the RJD fielded two candidates from Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan, which go to polls next week, reportedly without consulting or taking into confidence, the Congress party. The junior member of the alliance thus accused the RJD of violating the ‘alliance dharma’.
While there have also been speculations that the fissures within the alliance began over the reported rivalry between Tejashwi Yadav and Kanhaiya Kumar, who was recently inducted into the Congress party, Kumar has been dismissive about the speculations.
The ruling NDA secured a majority with 125-seats in the 243-seater Bihar Legislative Assembly. While the BJP won 74 seats, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) won 43. Eight other constituent parties of the NDA managed to bag eight seats. On the contrary, the RJD emerged as the single-largest party with 75 seats, but the other key partner in the alliance, Congress bagged only 19 of 70 seats.
