Congress gets a toehold in Bihar after 20 years

Patna, June 6 (IANS) Congress has made some electoral inroads in Bihar after 20 years by winning three Lok Sabha seats. 

The last time Congress won four seats from Bihar was 20 years ago during the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress contested nine seats in Bihar but managed to win only three Katihar, Sasaram and Kishanganj Lok Sabha seats.

Tariq Anwar won from Katihar, Manoj Kumar Ram from Sasaram and Mohammad Jawed won the KIshanganj seat for Congress.

The surprising candidate was Pappu Yadav who won the Purnia Lok Sabha as an independent candidate. However, he is likely to side with Congress, as he was seen waving the Congress flag after his victory.

“Pappu Yadav is most likely to join the Congress before the oath-taking ceremony. He is taking the legal opinion about it. He wants to keep his politics limited to the Kosi and Seemanchal regions of Bihar. Seemanchal is considered a stronghold of Congress and with Pappu Yadav on its side, Congress can gain in the Kosi region as well,” said political analyst Ajay Kumar.

Congress alliance partner RJD which had contested 23 seats managed to win only four Lok Sabha seats in Patliputra, Buxar, Aurangabad and Jahanabad.

Ajay Kumar said that RJD had claimed that the Mulsm-Yadav (MY) would vote for them but they failed to get their votes.

“RJD’s two Muslim candidates failed to win while Congress’ two Muslim candidates won. It points out that Lalu Prasad Yadav's grip on the MY equation has weakened,” Kumar said.

Both Congress and RJD had fielded two Muslim candidates each in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. However, both the RJD candidates, Ali Ashraf Fatmi from Madhubani and Shahnawaz Alam from Araria lost the election while the Muslim Congress candidates Tariq Anwar and Mohammad Jawed won the election.

“Pappu Yadav won the Purnia Lok Sabha seat. Muslim community has around six lakh votes in Purnia while Yadavs have near about 1.5 lakh votes. Pappu Yadav cannot join any other party but Congress,” Ajay Kumar said.

He said that whenever Pappu Yadav joins Congress, they (INDIA bloc) will reach the 100 mark in the parliament.

Interestingly, Tejashwi Yadav had camped in Purnia for five days but failed to get the desired results in favour of his party. Congress has now equalled the RJD in terms of the number of elected MPs in the Lok Sabha election from Bihar.

Also, the Congress was under intense pressure from its INDIA bloc partners not to hold an election rally in Purnia but they (Congress) did send Rahul Gandhi to Purnia for campaigning where he did not speak against Pappu Yadav.

Is the Congress’ win in Bihar after 20 years indicating a resurgent Congress in Bihar's politics which has been heavily overshadowed by JD-U and RJD, for the last 30 years, only time will tell.