Alliance partners Congress and RJD are sparring over a statement made by Tejashwi Yadav
The Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which had been in alliance since year 2000 (except for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections) is at loggerheads all of a sudden. The tension between the two parties blew its lid after a statement by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.
It all happened when Tejashwi Yadav suggested that alliance partner Congress needs to focus on 200-odd Parliamentary seats which the grand old party is in direct fight with the BJP. He went to add that the Congress should take a backseat in states where regional parties are much stronger.
Yadav’s statement came about while talking to news agency PTI, and within no time, it all took a turn for the worse. The Congress party higher ups weren’t so welcoming of the suggestion and the grand old party took to social media to hot out at Yadav and his unsolicited advice. The war of words on Twitter ensued and it’s a battlefield out there at the moment, with both the parties unleashing attacks on each other in the meanest manner possible.
It comes as funny to see Congress leaders lashing out at Yadav and the RJD for a suggestion he just made. The two parties though in alliance since 2000, had never seen eye to eye when it comes to political strategies. The Congress party’s plummeting vote share in Bihar has been a matter of concern for the RJD, but the former has not tried anything to make things right in that front.
Congress, RJD make Twitter a battlefield
Now with the fight coming out in the open, it looks like the alliance will die an early death. The manner in which the two parties got into combat gear on social media is a case in point that points at an end to the partnership. Saral Patel, the Congress party’s social department national convenor, took to Twitter to scream at Tejashwi Yadav that “Congress doesn’t need your advice, keep your advice to yourself”.
Aakash, his counterpart in the RJD, countered hastily ridiculing the Congress thus: “Yes, that’s right! The Congress is so capable of thinking what it should do that it is fighting war against NOTA in the elections.” He added: “This arrogance has brought it to even less than NOTA.” The RJD counter was in reference to the apparently appalling show by the Congress in the recently-concluded Bochaha Assembly bypoll, which the RJD had won. RJD also stated that the Congress did not even have 1 per cent ability to decide something on Bihar or on this issue.
Congress needs to introspect
The Congress party seriously needs to introspect on where it stands in the states where regional parties have a dominant presence. In Bihar, for instance, the grand old party has been relegated to a waning presence. Since the 2020 Assembly elections, the party has been able to win only 19 seats out of the 70 seats it contested. Meanwhile, the RJD bagged 75 out of 144 seats it contested.
Further, there are leaders in the RJD who believe that the party’s alliance with the Congress had been holding it back from making better performances in the polls.
Tejashwi Yadav’s suggestion that the Congress party should focus on the 200-odd seats it wants to win against the BJP on the national level and to take a backseat in states where regional parties are dominant players, should have been seen by the Congress party as an idea to be contemplated on. What the party is currently doing instead shows lack of maturity at the higher ups. The time, as we have been saying, has come for the party to do some introspection and correct itself.
