Rahul set to redraw Bihar strategy

He has also held consultations with senior leaders including Vijay Shankar Dube,former chief minister Abdul Gafoor’s grandson Asif Gafoor and Praveen Singh Kushwaha among others. According to sources,his interactions with these leaders were aimed at understanding the issues plaguing the party in the state and also to seek their views on prospective allies.

Rahul’s renewed initiative to revive the Congress in Bihar has come about two years after the party’s disastrous show in the Assembly polls in which it could win only four seats. The Congress has only two Lok Sabha MPs from the state — Meira Kumar (Sasaram) and Maulana Asrarul Haque (Kishanganj).

In the run-up to the 2010 Assembly polls,Rahul had made several visits to the state in a bid to revive the party,which had been out of power in the state for two decades.

Following the poll debacle,Rahul’s interest in the state appeared to be on the wane as the state unit remained without an executive committee for around two years since the resignation of PCC chief Mehboob Ali Qaiser. His replacement is yet to be found.

During this period,Rahul visited the state only once in July 2011 to meet victims of Forbesganj police firing.

Asection of state Congress leaders,however,remain apprehensive about the outcome of Rahul’s renewed initiatives in Bihar. “He chose to call Praveen Singh Kushwaha for consultations although the entire state knows about his background. He had been named in an abduction and rape case… . If people like Kushwaha are going to revive the Congress in Bihar,the lesser we talk about it,the better,” a senior Congress leader told The Indian Express.