Amid call for leadership change in INDIA bloc, several Congress leaders want party to fight State polls alone

RJD chief endorses Mamata Banerjee's leadership, sparking debate within Congress on contesting elections independently.

As Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad became the latest leader from the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc to endorse Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s leadership for the Opposition bloc, there is also a churn within the Congress on the need to contest elections in various States alone.

“Mamata [Banerjee] should be given the leadership role,” Mr. Prasad told reporters in Patna, adding,” It doesn’t matter if Congress objects”.

Considered an all-weather ally of the Congress, the RJD patriarch’s comments are being seen as tough posturing before next year’s Assembly election in Bihar, where the two parties are in an alliance, and comes a day after All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Shahnawaz Alam asserted there was no “big brother” or “little brother” in an alliance.

Mr. Alam, addressing a party event in Khagaria on Monday (December 9, 2024), said the seat-sharing arrangements between parties should take into account several factors, including the strike rate in the recent Lok Sabha election – a reference to the RJD’s poor showing. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the RJD contested 23 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats but won only four, while the Congress won three of the nine seats it contested.

However, with back-to-back losses in Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections, INDIA bloc members are now seen to be driving a hard bargain in States. And, it is in this context that one needs to locate Mr. Yadav and NCP leader Sharad Pawar’s endorsement of Ms. Banerjee as INDIA bloc chief.

However, several AICC functionaries argued that their party should not cede any more ground to allies only for the sake of Opposition unity.

An AICC secretary told The Hindu that In the past 20 years, his party gradually had lost its cadres in Bihar without making any substantial gain from its alliance with the RJD.