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This is an archive article published on June 20, 2013
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Opinion Cong fancies its chances in new Bihar equations

On Tuesday,as BJP and JD(U) workers indulged in pitched battles in Patna,Bihar Congress chief Ashok Choudhury

indianexpress

D K Singh

June 20, 2013 02:53 AM IST First published on: Jun 20, 2013 at 02:53 AM IST

On Tuesday,as BJP and JD(U) workers indulged in pitched battles in Patna,Bihar Congress chief Ashok Choudhury was driving from pillar to post in Delhi seeking directions from the Central leadership on the situation. Congress president Sonia Gandhi gave him a patient hearing but no clear direction,and neither did newly appointed AICC general secretary in-charge of Bihar CP Joshi.

It was only hours before the confidence motion in the Assembly that Congress MLAs were asked to vote for the Nitish Kumar government,with the message that the support was in the context of the trust vote only and should not be construed as a signal of any future political re-alignment. The limited objective was to send out a signal to the minority community about its “unequivocal stand in the fight against Narendra Modi”.

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Reduced to the margins in post-Mandal state politics,the Congress,with merely four MLAs in the 243-member Assembly,today finds itself in the enviable position of being able to “influence” the fate of the state’s two dominant players — Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish — in future elections. With its vote share in the last Assembly polls a little over 8 per cent — around half the BJP’s — a section of the Congress leaders believes Nitish would be compelled to ally with them to make up for the loss of the BJP and its upper caste vote bank.

More than that,they say,their party’s “Midas touch” could turn the JD(U) into a “truly secular” party,helping it “wash the sins” accumulated through 17 years of alliance with the BJP. As a quid pro quo,they expect the JD(U) to help the Congress increase its Lok Sabha tally in the state — currently just 2 out of 40 — and to put it back on the path of revival.

However,while Rahul Gandhi favours a JD(U)-Congress alliance,Sonia has not made up her mind yet. Lalu was one of the first to come to Sonia’s defence over her foreign origin issue. He never attacked the Nehru-Gandhi family even though his persistent overtures to join the UPA-II were rebuffed. No wonder,the RJD supremo still enjoys Sonia’s goodwill,if not trust.

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As Congressmen say,should things not work out with Nitish,Lalu is always the “fallback option”.

Deepak is a senior editor based in Delhi

dk.singh@expressindia.com