Jharkhand Rajya Sabha Elections: ‘Sourness’ in RJD-Congress Relationship Amidst Cross Voting, What will be the High Command’s Decision
Even when the RJD is a part of the opposition's Indi alliance on a national level, the relationship between the RJD and the Congress has become sour in the regional politics of both Bihar and Jharkhand. The incident of four RJD MLAs not voting for the Congress candidate in the Jharkhand Rajya Sabha elections and in place of that not voting for Pranab Jha but on others' behalf has startled the leaders of the party.
Along with this, now leaders of Congress in both Bihar and Jharkhand have openy spoke out about rethinking their alliance with the RJD.
Many leaders of Bihar Congress are advocatingfor bold political decisions for the party like those in Bengal and Tamil Nadu to achieve power from the high command. Cross voting in Rajya Sabha election. After a debacle in the assembly elections in Bihar as Grand Alliance members were thrashed in the election, alliance talks to rethink with RJD in Congress itself began, which have been given more thrust by the RJD MLAs' cross-voting. While K Raju Jharkhand Congress in charge was also openly talking about RJD MLAs cheating them during the interview after Pranab Jha's shock defeat, some of the state Congress leaders are so annoyed with this that they even demand that the RJD be thrown out of Hemant Soren's government.
Following this move by RJD, it is a good opportunity for Bihar Congress leaders to once again begin the mission of regaining their own place.
After the assembly elections many of the senior leaders said during meetings with the Congress high command that the experiment of alliance run by RJD and Tejashwi Yadav is failing one after another and a new political course must be adopted. Leaders of Bihar say that when Nitish Kumar is no longer here then in his absence, there will be space for a credible alternative to fight the BJP-JDU alliance and they should do this with a strategy of self reliance. With failure of Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraj campaign, the public now is seeing Congress in role of such alternative.
Kishore Kumar Jha, the veteran leader of the Bihar Congress, who is strongly advising the RJD to detach itself from them said that when we are in alliance then our allies always corner us. November's assembly elections had clearly shown the consequences of RJD's decade and a half rule over the Congress party. He said that currently, only Rahul Gandhi is engaged in the battle for politics and Constitution against BJP and Narendra Modi, and all coalition partners have stabbed him in the back.
Jha says that if the party doesn't detach from the RJD in the wake of their cross voting in Jharkhand and does not take part in election in self-reliance mode, then Rahul Gandhi's growing popularity will not benefit Congress.
However, the leadership of the party is not talking much yet about breaking ties with the RJD in both states. Tejashwi Yadav also indicated it when asked to share birthday wishes with Rahul Gandhi on Friday where he was seen suggesting the Leader of the Opposition to work together. While Kishore Jha was openly commenting on the anti-RJD sentiments of Congress leaders, K Raju, in-charge of Jharkhand Congress, too did not hide the discomfort in relation to betrayals of the partner.
