Cong Washout In Bihar Polls Likely To Cloud Its Alliance Prospects In TN, Bengal

Nothing has come more as a shock for the Congress than its meltdown in the Bihar assembly elections. The party which had 19 MLAs in the outgoing assembly didn’t expect a wash-out particularly after Rahul Gandhi had carried out a much-hyped ‘Voters Adhikar rally’ in September, with a common slogan: “Vote chor, gaddi chhod”. Of course, party sources concede that Rahul’s yatra had not resonated on the ground. In fact, many Congress leaders believe Rahul had focussed on non-issues “like vote chori” just to divert from people’s real problems. What has come as a shock for Bihar Congress leaders is that new entrants like Asauddin Owaisi’s AIMIM seemed to have fared well in Seemanchal leading in as many five seats, quite close to Congress’s own tally of six seats. Analysing the Bihar victory, PM Modi described the overwhelming mandate for the NDA– 204 seats out 243 as a vote for vikas, for development. Modi who invoked prayers to Chhati Mayya and took on Rahul for mocking Chhath Puja. It is learnt that Rahul is in Muscat.  Sources feel Congress party’s bad performance was because it could not get good seats to contest — of the 61 seats it got to contest, 32 were such seats that the Opposition had not won for the last three decades. Bihar Congress leaders also said party managers like Krishna Allavaru were completely not briefed about the quality of seats. Some also felt inordinate delay in seat-sharing and declaring Tejashwi Yadav as the chief ministerial candidate may have cost the secular alliance votes. As for the rout of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress sources say people find Tejashwi Yadav too arrogant. After the Bihar rout, Congress may not find many takers in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.