File picture of Bihar Congress in-charge Krishna Allavaru (right).
| Photo Credit: PTI
In a direct message to alliance partner the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress chief in Bihar, Krishna Allavaru said on Sunday (March 2, 2025) that the Congress would contest the Assembly election as an ‘A team’ instead of being the ‘B team’ of the RJD.
In the past, the Congress party had faced criticism for being the ‘B team’ of RJD. With this statement, he has made it clear that the Congress party will no longer be a stooge of the RJD.
Mr. Allavaru was speaking at Patna airport on Sunday (March 2, 2025) after he landed to take part in the ‘Save Constitution and Save Bihar’ conference organised by Bihar Pradesh OBC Congress at Congress headquarters Sadaquat Ashram.
Mr. Allavaru said, “This time the Congress party wants to contest the assembly election as the ‘A team’ of the people of Bihar. We want to strengthen the party and also want better results.”
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Lalu is ‘unhappy’
Mr. Allavaru, who has made several trips to Bihar after being appointed to lead the Bihar Congress, has not even made a courtesy visit to the RJD chief, Lalu Prasad, who is considered the patriarch of the Congress-RJD alliance.
A senior RJD leader said that Mr. Allavaru’s actions had not gone down well with Mr. Prasad, the former Chief Minister of Bihar who is close to both Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.
“Whenever Rahul Gandhi visits Bihar, he always visits Lalu ji and his son Tejashwi Yadav. In fact, on February 5, when Rahul Gandhi visited Patna to attend a programme, he made a brief visit to Hotel Maurya to meet Tejashwi Yadav. Later in the evening, Rahul Gandhi went to 10, Circular Road, to meet Lalu ji and Rabri Devi ji,” a senior RJD leader said.
On how many seats the Congress plans to contest, Mr. Allavaru said, “There have been no talks over seat sharing yet. I will not say anything on this at the moment.”
RJD MLA Bhai Birendra downplayed the statement of the Bihar Congress chief saying that national leadership takes decisions and RJD will continue to play the role of ‘big brother.’
RJD the ‘big brother’
“The national level leaders of the RJD and Congress take decisions on how to move forward, how to contest elections, and how to form the government. RJD has always been a big party in the alliance. RJD has pleasant relations with Rahul Gandhi ji and Sonia ji, and I am not concerned who is saying what,” Mr. Birendra told the media.
Later at the conference Mr. Allavaru said it was very important for candidates to win their seats after getting a ticket instead of playing the blame game.
“As for tickets, preference will be given to those who stand a chance of winning, who have a mass base and who live among the people. Winning the election after getting a ticket is most important. Otherwise, something similar to 2020 will happen. We contested 70 seats and won just 19,” Mr. Allavaru said.
He added that everyone knows the kind of talk that followed in Bihar and at the national level about the Congress party after it won only 19 out of 70 seats it contested in 2020.
He instructed leaders and workers to stop making rounds of the party headquarters and hit the ground at the district and block level to strengthen the organisation.
Published – March 03, 2025 05:27 am IST