The Mahagatbandhan (grand alliance) led by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has been pushed to the brink with the entry of Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who merged his Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik) with the Congress on Wednesday, and has staked claim to Purnia Lok Sabha seat in North Bihar.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has played an instrumental role in bringing Mr. Pappu Yadav on board. The party’s Bihar president Akhilesh Prasad Singh was not present at the Congress headquarters on Wednesday afternoon when Mr. Pappu Yadav was formally inducted to the fold.
Hours after Mr. Pappu Yadav joined the Congress, senior RJD leader and Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav had dialled the Congress leadership in the State to express his displeasure. Mr. Pappu Yadav had met both Mr. Tejashwi and RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad on Tuesday evening before flying to Delhi to join the Congress on Wednesday afternoon, creating an impression that he had the RJD’s blessings for the move.
“We were under the impression that RJD was on board with his joining the Congress but we have been told now that Mr. Pappu Yadav did not keep them in the loop and had pushed for the meeting on the pretext of a courtesy call,” a top Congress leader said. Congress State president Akhilesh Prasad Singh met the RJD leadership on Thursday but refused to comment on whether the Purnia seat or Mr. Pappu Yadav’s entry came up for discussion.
“What new does Pappu Yadav bring to the table? The Yadav vote bank that he claims to mobilise is already there with us,” a senior RJD leader said explaining their opposition to his candidature. The party is instead zeroing on Bhima Bharti, a woman leader from Extremely Backward Caste for the seat.
Out of the 19 lakh-odd voters in Purnia Lok Sabha seat in the backward belt of Seemanchal, 21% are Muslims and Yadavs comprise another 6%. Janata Dal (United)’s sitting MP Santosh Kumar exuded confidence in the face of the speculation about Mr. Pappu Yadav’s candidature. “Other than Yadav and Muslims, who will vote for him or the Opposition candidate? The NDA on the other hand has support of paanch pooran [five spices] castes - from the Kurmi-Kushwaha community, Mahadalit, Extremely Backward Caste, Paswans and all the Forward Castes. They will get around 30-32% votes like they got in the 2019 election while we will get close to 60%,” Mr. Kumar said.
This is not the only point of conflict for the alliance. The Congress has been demanding nine seats, but the RJD is willing to concede only six. Similarly, there are tensions in the talks between the RJD and the Left parties too. The Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) wants to contest from Siwan, a seat that the RJD is not willing to let go. The talks between RJD and CPI(ML) have hit a stalemate over the issue. “They want to restrict us with just three seats, this was justified when we have JD(U) too in the alliance. Now, as per our strength in the Assembly, they should concede at least five seats to us including Siwan,” a senior CPI(ML) leader said.
