Bihar bypolls: On fodder from Lalu, Cong tweaks strategy

In its bid to paint disparaging remarks by RJD chief Lalu Prasad against All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Bihar, Bhakta Charan Das, as an assault on the Dalit self-respect, the state Congress has decided to field senior leaders of the community, including former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, for the campaign for its nominees, Atirek Kumar and Rajesh Mishra from Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur, respectively.

The state Congress has tweaked its strategy in the middle of campaigning for the October 30 bypolls in Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur assembly constituencies in the wake of its bitter fallout with ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), party leaders said.

Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav. (PTI)

In its bid to paint disparaging remarks by RJD chief Lalu Prasad against All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Bihar, Bhakta Charan Das, as an assault on the Dalit self-respect, the state Congress has decided to field senior leaders of the community, including former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, for the campaign for its nominees, Atirek Kumar and Rajesh Mishra from Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur, respectively.

Meira Kumar is likely to join the campaigning from Tuesday. Other party MLAs hailing from scheduled castes (SCs), like Rajesh Ram, Poonam Paswan, Murari Gautam, have been given block-wise responsibility to mobilise Dalit votes for the party. “The outbursts of Prasad reflect RJD’s anti-Dalit mentality,” said former Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) chief Anil Sharma.

Former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) leader Kanhaiya Kumar, who recently joined Congress, has already been holding public meeting with packed crowds in Tarapur ever since he reached the state on October 22. “Kumar has addressed two public meetings in Kusheshwar Asthan, where he would stay till the last date of campaigning,” said party MLC Prem Chandra Mishra, who has been camping there.

The party, insiders say, has also decided to “expose” the anti-Muslim role the erstwhile Janata Dal, of which RJD is an off-shoot, allegedly played in the aftermath of Bhagalpur riots in 1989. BPCC working president Kaukab Quadri is out with his teams of senior Muslim faces of the party, they said. “Popular Urdu poet Imran Pratapgarhi would also adding spice to the party’s electioneering from Tuesday,” said BPCC chief spokesman Rajesh Rathore.

Accusing the RJD of back-stabbing minorities, Sharma alleged that then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi took serious exception to the Bhagalpur riots and removed the party’s chief minister and ordered a judicial inquiry. “But Janata Dal not only protected the perpetrators of the riots, but also awarded key conspirators,” alleged Sharma, adding that the Congress has finally freed itself of RJD’s clutches.