Bihar polls results: Congress has numbers, but realises size is shrinking

The Congress vice-president also declared his party’s complete support to Nitish Kumar.

WATCH VIDEO: Bihar Election Results: Editors’ Take

But amid all the euphoria and boost the result gave to its national campaign against the BJP and Modi, the Congress has a worry. The Bihar results showed that a viable and credible anti-BJP front could take shape, and that the Congress may not be the fulcrum of it. That would end the Congress position as even the main opposition party.

WATCH VIDEO: Parties React To Bihar Results: Rahul Gandhi, Kailash Vijayvargiya & Javed Raza Speak

While newly victorious Nitish Kumar looks the best possible candidate at the moment to be at the centre of that anti-BJP space, there is also West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Earlier too, she had aligned herself with Arvind Kejriwal and Nitish against Modi. The JD(U) leader has the advantage of also having acceptability among the Left.

Piggybacking on allies Nitish and Lalu Prasad, the Congress won 27 seats of the 41 it contested in Bihar, surpassing its own expectations of around 15-20. The last time it did so well was in 1995, when it got 29 seats. It had got 23 seats in 2000.

[related-post]

The best show of the Congress in the Bihar Assembly since the bifurcation of the state has been in the 2005 February polls, when it got 10 seats. It was the emergence of the BJP as the main opposition party in 1995 that triggered the Congress’s downhill journey.

During the campaign this time, the Congress was routinely criticised for top leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi not coming on one platform with Lalu and Nitish.

Many also wondered whether the Grand Alliance had erred in giving so many tickets to the Congress, and that their votes wouldn’t get transferred to the struggling party.

Scenting power after a long time, Congress minister hopefuls had already started thronging the party office in Patna on Sunday.

In Delhi too, the effect of Sunday’s numbers was instantly visible. The Congress has lost five state elections on a trot since the May 2014 general polls and only on Saturday suffered a setback in the civic polls in Kerala, which is bound for Assembly elections.

Acknowleding the cheers and hugs of party leaders, Rahul was acerbic in his advice for Modi.

“Stop giving promises and delivering speeches and start working. India has waited for a year and your car has not started. Press the accelerator. Because if you fail to press the accelerator, the people of the country will open the door and throw you out (of the driver’s seat).”

Rahul added, “There is one more suggestion. Stop going on foreign trips. Reach out to farmers, youths, whom you have promised jobs, embrace them and run the country.”

Rahul and Congress president Sonia Gandhi spoke to Nitish and Lalu and congratulated them.

While Rahul evaded questions on whether they would enter alliances in other states headed for elections, the party senses the predicament it finds itself in.

Soon after Rahul spoke, senior Congress leader and CWC member A K Antony said the Bihar outcome was a “turning point”, and showed the first stirrings of a larger secular alliance.

In Patna, Bihar PCC chief Ashok Kumar Choudhary shared the dais with senior Grand Alliance partners Lalu and Nitish at the post-results press conference.

Speaking last, he said, “We cannot thank the people of Bihar enough in reposing faith in us. It is the cumulative success of the Grand Alliance.”