Ground realities cannot be learnt from one’s drawing room: RJD’s swipe at Congress in Bihar

The hostility between Congress and RJD, both having contested along with the Left as part of the Grand Alliance in 2020 assembly polls, was triggered with the RJD deciding to contest both the Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan seats in the by-polls to be held on October 30.

With the campaigning for by-polls to two seats in Bihar gaining intensity, a war of words has broken out between the Congress and RJD with RJD’s Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha on Tuesday launching a scathing attack against Congress in-charge of the state Bhakta Charan Das alleging the latter has ‘no knowledge of state’s politics’ and ‘cannot know ground realities by sitting in a drawing room’.

RJD’s Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha on Tuesday launching a scathing attack against Congress in-charge of the state Bhakta Charan Das in the run-up to bypolls in Bihar on October 30. (HT PHOTO.)

Jha’s comments come a day after Das had made a strong accusation against the RJD of digressing from the long fight of upholding secularism and fighting communalism and reaching an understanding with those ‘forces’ against whom both the Congress and Left have been fighting for long.

“I feel, the RJD has had an understanding with those forces against whom we have been fighting though the party is not coming out in the open. This is a game-plan. In the days to come, they will go with those forces. After all, it is clear the RJD does not need the support of 19 Congress MLAs. It means, they have got support of other forces,” Das had told the media.

Asked whether he implied that RJD was in an understanding with the BJP and could join hands with the saffron party, Das asserted it was clear the RJD did not need Congress support having decided to contest both Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan seats.

“If the RJD wanted to form government, they would have needed 19 MLAs. It means, RJD is getting support from the party against whom we all had come together to form the Grand Alliance,” the Congress in-charge said. Das, a former MP, also had slammed the RJD for breaching the coalition dharma saying that the Grand Alliance would have been intact had RJD respected the Congress demand for being allotted the Kusheshwar Asthan seat , which has traditionally been the party’s stronghold.

Admittedly, the RJD on Tuesday countered Das point to point with the party’s national spokesperson in a media interaction calling Das’s statement of “RJD having an internal understanding with the BJP” as laughable and unfortunate.

“The Congress-in charge of Bihar does not have any knowledge of social economic and political history of the state or RJD’s sacrifices. Becoming the party’s in-charge does not mean destroying the party,” Jha said. On Congress’s accusation that RJD had strayed from its ideology of secularism, Jha said the Das should know that it was RJD chief Lalu Prasad who had the guts to stop BJP patriarch L K Advani’s Rath Yatra in 1990 in Samastipur.

“There were many Congresses chief ministers but nobody showed the guts or courage to stop the Rath. It was Lalu Prasad who had the courage to stop Advani in Bihar. Before making any comment, first turn the mirror towards yourself,” Jha said, emphasizing that RJD’s secular credentials cannot be doubted as it had relentlessly fought against communal forces and made sacrifices to oppose the BJP.

The RJD MP also refuted Das’s allegation that the principal opposition party had breached the coalition dharma. “RJD has fulfilled coalition dharma with Congress at all times staying behind at good and bad times especially during its bad times. RJD is doing its coalition dharma by making all efforts to defeat the JD(U)-BJP coalition in the by-polls and we shall accomplish that. But I will urge you (Das) to gain some knowledge of politics of the state. By sitting in the drawing room, you cannot understand ground realities of the state,” Jha said, taking a pot-shot at the Congress leader.

The hostility between Congress and RJD, both having contested along with the Left as part of the Grand Alliance in 2020 assembly polls, was triggered with the RJD deciding to contest both the Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan seats in the by-polls to be held on October 30. Congress too has fielded its candidates from both the seats though the grand old party has called RJD’s unilateral decision as a violation of coalition dharma. The Congress party’s state leaders have become vocal against the RJD recently.