The rift between the grand alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress widened on Sunday after All India Congress Committee in-charge for Bihar Bhakta Charan Das dared the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) for form government without the Congress’s supportin the state and said that the impact of split in the coalition would be visible in the upcoming by-elections.
Talking to media persons at the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) office on the sidelines of a crucial meeting of party seniors for by-elections in Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur assembly seats, Das said, “RJD would need the support of 19 Congress legislators if it wants to form the government...We are still in the alliance. But the breakup of the Grand Alliance (GA) would have its perceptible bearing on the by-elections’ result.”
The bypolls to the two assembly seats are scheduled to be held on October 30 and the two parties have fielded their own candidates for the two seats..
The Congress has fielded Atirek Kumar, the son of the party’s stalwart Ashok Kumar from Kusheshwarsthan (reserved for the scheduled caste) in Darbhanga and Rajesh Kumar Mishra from Tarapur seat in Munger. They are pitted against the JDU’s Aman Bhushan Hazari and Rajiv Singh and RJD’s Ganesh Bharti and Arun Kumar Sah.
A senior AICC member Kishore Kumar Jha said that the RJD’s strength in the Lok Sabha dipped to 4 against 22 in 2009, when it parted ways with the Congress and teamed up with Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP in the parliamentary polls. “Likewise, RJD’s tally in the assembly dipped to 22 in 2010 against 54 in 2005, when it rejected the Congress’s tie-up proposal and continued its alliance with the LJP,” said Jha.
{{/usCountry}}A senior AICC member Kishore Kumar Jha said that the RJD’s strength in the Lok Sabha dipped to 4 against 22 in 2009, when it parted ways with the Congress and teamed up with Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP in the parliamentary polls. “Likewise, RJD’s tally in the assembly dipped to 22 in 2010 against 54 in 2005, when it rejected the Congress’s tie-up proposal and continued its alliance with the LJP,” said Jha.
{{/usCountry}}Chairman of the election campaign committee of the BPCC Akhilesh Prasad Singh claimed that the party was sure to wrest both the seats, as both the NDA and the RJD was grappling with internal crises. “We are working with renewed vigour in the wake of break up in the coalition,” said Singh.
RJD spokesman Shakti Singh Yadav said that they (RJD) had to go alone, as its repeated pleas to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to strengthen the alternative at regional levels failed to yield any result.