Patna: The Congress has, for the first time since its defeat in the Bihar elections, publicly voiced doubts about the future of its alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), signalling potential strain within the opposition bloc in the state.
Shakeel Ahmed Khan, a senior party leader and former MLA, said the alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal was no longer yielding political benefits. “If an alliance brings no benefit, it should be abandoned,” he said, adding that this assertion was made when Bihar Congress leaders recently went to Delhi.
A senior Bihar Congress leader echoed the sentiment, arguing that the party was being unfairly blamed for the alliance’s defeat. “When we fought together, responsibility for the loss should also be shared together,” the leader said. “It is wrong to say the defeat happened because of the Congress alone.”
Khan said feedback from senior leaders and candidates who contested the elections suggested that the party was not able to consolidate its vote share or retain support among various social and community groups while remaining in the alliance. These concerns, he said, had been formally communicated to the Congress high command.
He also stressed that internal discussion alone would not be enough to revive the party’s fortunes in Bihar. “We need to build a strong organisation in the state, launch initiatives that give relief to the people, and begin a mass movement against the anti-people policies of the Bihar government,” Khan said.
Calling for a return to grassroots politics, he argued that the Congress would regain strength only through sustained agitation and public engagement. “The party needs to rediscover the energy and influence it had around 1990,” he said.
