Cong’s poll review meet turns into chaos

According to party leaders, a heated verbal duel ensued between two unsuccessful candidates — Sanjeev Singh (Vaishali) and Jitendra Yadav (Purnea) — even before Kharge and Rahul Gandhi arrived at the meeting venue.

The Congress party’s crucial meeting to assess the causes of its disastrous performance in the just concluded assembly elections in Bihar turned into acrimony and chaos on Thursday as defeated candidates openly clashed, traded abuses and even issued threats of violence.

The review meeting in Delhi was chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. (HT Photo)

The review meeting in Delhi was chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, in presence of party’s in-charge for Bihar Krishna Allavaru and Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) chief Rajesh Ram.

According to party leaders, a heated verbal duel ensued between two unsuccessful candidates — Sanjeev Singh (Vaishali) and Jitendra Yadav (Purnea) — even before Kharge and Rahul Gandhi arrived at the meeting venue. The altercation reportedly escalated to the point where threats of “shooting” each other were hurled, forcing others present to intervene.

Independent MP from Purnea, Pappu Yadav, who made a brief appearance at the meeting, is learnt to have played peacemaker and calmed the warring candidates. Pappu Yadav had openly supported both Singh and Yadav during the campaign.

During interactions held in batches with Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, defeated candidates alleged lack of coordination with Mahagathbandhan allies, especially the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Left parties during the campaigning. They claimed that “friendly fights” with RJD and CPI candidates led to split in secular votes, benefiting parties like AIMIM in the Seemanchal region

Absence of a dedicated state-level campaign committee and other organisational panels, large-scale flow of cash to women voters in violation of the Model Code of Conduct, heavy deployment of paramilitary forces to scare away Mahagathbandhan voters, administrative bias and tacit support of the election machinery to the ruling NDA were attributed as other major factors for the party’s debacle.

Some candidates directly blamed RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav for the collapse of alliance coordination on the ground.

Senior Congress leaders, including Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, reportedly acknowledged shortcomings in ticket distribution and campaign management but urged the state unit to focus on grassroots revival rather than finger-pointing.

A senior BPCC leader present at the meeting, quoting the top brass, said that the BPCC would launch “vigorous organisational drives” to rebuild from the block-level. BPCC chief Ram said that the senior leadership has directed them to concentrate on rejuvenating the party at the grassroots. “We will chalk out a detailed strategy after the Congress rally focussing on ‘vote theft’ scheduled at Ramlila Maidan on December 14,” he added.

In an official statement issued after the meeting, the party claimed that despite “widespread stealing of Congress votes”, its overall vote percentage had actually increased — a claim that drew raised eyebrows given the seat tally and ground reports.

Responding to questions on what transpired during the four-hour review meeting held after the poll debacle in Bihar, Congress leader Tariq Anwar said, “People spoke very openly about the candidates, the difficulties they faced, and the challenges they had to deal with. They shared all of this frankly in front of our national president Kharge ji, Rahul ji, and Venugopal ji. Several reasons were cited, because there cannot be just one reason for losing an election, there can be many. Everyone expressed their views on these issues.”

He added, “In Thursday’s review meeting as well, people spoke their minds freely. The matter is now with the high command; it is under their consideration and they will decide the further course of action.”