Bihar Alliance Crisis: RJD-Congress Rift Deepens After Election Defeat

Bihar verdict: Rift deepens within Grand Alliance; RJD hits out at Congress

Patna, Nov 29

After suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of voters, both the RJD and Congress have begun openly trading blame for the debacle.

Tensions escalated after a Congress review meeting in Delhi, where the party reportedly pointed fingers at the RJD for the defeat.

On Saturday, the rift widened further when RJD state president Mangani Lal Mandal publicly questioned the Congress’s status within the alliance.

Mandal asserted that the Congress won seats and secured votes only because of the RJD’s support.

“If Congress wants to chart a different political course, let it do so — it will then know its real strength,” he said.

He recalled that in 2020, Congress demanded 72 seats and contested 70, yet even the 19 seats it won were because of the RJD.

His remarks triggered renewed speculation about a possible breakup between the two parties.

Congress leaders sharply rebutted Mandal’s claim.

“If Congress is so weak, why does RJD keep us in the alliance?” a senior leader asked. They suggested that if Mangani Lal Mandal had concerns, he should have raised them with Tejashwi Yadav, the chairman of the Grand Alliance coordination committee, instead of airing them publicly.

In the 2025 Assembly polls, Congress contested 61 seats and managed to win only six. On more than ten seats, it also faced “friendly fights” with alliance partners, further weakening its prospects.

Meanwhile, RJD has called an important meeting of its MLAs on Saturday evening at the residence of Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav.

The meeting is expected to finalise the opposition’s strategy for the upcoming legislative session.

With tensions now out in the open, the dominant question in Bihar’s political circles is whether the RJD and Congress are heading toward a split — marking a major realignment in state politics.

— IANS