Congress rushes senior leaders to Patna to stave off ‘poaching attempt’ by BJP

Patna: Ahead of the counting of votes on Tuesday, the top Congress leadership has rushed a team of senior leaders to Patna to “prevent any poaching attempt” by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) if no party gets a clear majority in the Bihar state elections.

The move is aimed at checking a “repeat” of Goa and Manipur where the BJP managed to form its governments despite the Congress emerging as the single-largest party after the elections. Most of the exit polls have predicted a comfortable majority for the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Grand Alliance of which Congress is a part. At least three opinion polls, especially the Today’s Chanakaya, has given 140 to 180 seats in the 243-member Bihar assembly, but the Congress party does not want to leave anything to chance and has come in alert mode hours before the counting is to start.

Two senior Congress leaders, general secretary Randeep Surjewala and Avinash Pandey, have already arrived in Patna and are busy chalking strategy about how to deal with the situation. “It’s a good decision on the part of the All India Congress Committee to take precautionary steps in the wake of past incidents,” said senior party leader Kishore Kumar Jha.

Reports said the Congress party has already planned to summon all the winning candidates to Patna and rush them to Congress-ruled States like Punjab and Rajasthan if the contest looked too close in the end.

Sources said the Congress leadership has trusted Surjewala again as he was the man who had very deftly handled the Rajasthan crisis when a group of party lawmakers led by former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot revolted against the chief minister Ashok Gehlot and it appeared the party might lose power there too, like Madhya Pradesh. Surjewala, known as a party “trouble-shooter”, not only thwarted the BJP’s design but also helped keep the flock of lawmakers together.

During the poll campaign too, the party had deputed Surjewala in Patna for 25 days to properly monitor the party’s poll campaign. He had returned to Delhi only last week after the month-long campaigning came to an end on November 7.

In the last 2015 assembly polls too, the Grand Alliance-led by Janata Dal United leader Nitish Kumar had defeated the NDA in the election. Kumar had headed the three-party Grand Alliance comprising the JD-U, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress. But barely two years into power, he suddenly broke away from the RJD and formed his new government with the support of the BJP against which he had got the mandate. In 2013, Kumar had done the same thing when he formed his new government with the support of some opposition parties and Independents while he had won the elections with the support of the BJP.

The RJD has warned party workers against indulging in fireworks or celebratory firings during the day of counting and also behave properly. It also asked the workers to accept the result with humility. The party issued a formal advisory to the party workers on Sunday.

“Improper fireworks, celebratory firings and uncivilised behaviour towards the rivals or even supporters won’t be tolerated at any cost,” the party warned on Sunday. The party leadership is buoyed by the exit polls predicting “formation” of Tejashwi Yadav-led opposition alliance in Bihar.

Tejashwi, who turned 31 on Monday, kept his birthday a low-key affair. He appealed to party workers and supporters to stay at home and avoid rushing to his residence to convey the birthday wishes. Yet, a large number of enthusiastic workers rushed to his residence to greet him and even put up hoardings at many places in Patna, describing him as “future chief minister”.