Firm to contest LS polls alone, Bihar Congress to launch mega membership drive from today

The party will strive to induct more than five million members during the drive that will continue till March next year, Congress legislature party (CLP) leader Ajit Sharma said on Sunday.

Firm on contesting the next Lok Sabha elections on its own, the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) will launch a mega membership drive from Monday to reclaim its support base in the state, party leaders said.

All India Congress Committee Bihar in-charge Bhakta Charan Das (HT File)

The party will strive to induct more than five million members during the drive that will continue till March next year, Congress legislature party (CLP) leader Ajit Sharma said on Sunday.

“As declared by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Bihar Bhakta Charan Das, the party will contest the 2024 LS on its own. We are now focused on rejuvenating our direct rapport with the people and garner their support on the issues of price rise, growing corruption and joblessness,” Sharma said.

A senior party leader said the party managed to get more than 1.6 million members during the drive carried out in 2016, when Ashok Choudhary was the BPCC chief. “In 2020, the party launched a digital membership drive just before the assembly elections. However, it did not yield an encouraging result owing to technical glitches. This time, we have again resorted to manual operations to induct fresh members,” BPCC chief spokesman Rajesh Rathore said.

A section of the party leaders, however, contended that the results of Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur bypolls would determine the fate of the party, which chose to contest the elections without a tie-up with the RJD. The alliance between the two parties broke up after the RJD unilaterally decided to field its candidates on both the seats, without consulting the Congress.

The counting of votes for bypolls will be held on November 2.

Former BPCC chief Anil Sharma said the Congress should carry out a vigorous drive to expand its bases, which got eroded over the years due to its excessive reliance on the RJD-led coalition. “It may take some time and require unrelenting efforts of the party workers to win over the people’s confidence, as it was for the fifth time when the RJD broke out of the coalition. Congress was first left to fend for itself by the RJD in 2000, then in February 2005. In 2009 LS polls, the RJD-Congress pact withered away again. The Congress had to contest 2010 assembly polls on its own, as RJD sidelined us again,” Sharma added.

AICC member Kishore Kumar Jha argued that RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s lies about his talks with AICC chief Sonia Gandhi sowed the seed of confusion among the masses ahead of the voting. “The way the Congress’s interest was taken for granted by the RJD, people are now seldom taking the grand old party seriously. People still believe that the Congress will join hands with the RJD. This doubt must be cleared and the party workers need to work tirelessly to apprise them about the achievements of the Congress. One can’t turn the wave overnight,” added Jha.

In-charge of the membership drive Brajesh Kumar Munnan said block and booth committees would be formed in April while the state committee is likely to be reconstituted by mid-July after the conclusion of the drive.