‘What is this alliance?’: Lalu Prasad Yadav questions Congress’s usefulness as an ally in Bihar

PTI, Oct 24, 2021, 5:00 PM IST

Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav on Sunday scorned the Congress as he questioned the party’s usefulness as an ally and wondered if his party should have left an assembly bypoll seat in the state for the national party so that it could lose even its deposit.

“Kya hota hai Congress ka gathbandhan? (What is this thing about an alliance with the Congress),” he shot back when asked about a virtual breakup of their alliance in the bypolls to two assembly seats over the RJD’s refusal to concede a seat to the national party.

“Should we have given one seat (to Congress) for it to lose? So that it could lose even its deposit?” he said disdainfully.

He also mocked Congress leader Bhakta Charan Das, the party’s in-charge for Bihar who has been targeting the RJD.

Das had recently said that Congress is no longer part of the RJD-led alliance in the state.

The RJD’s decision to field its candidate from Kusheshwar Asthan, a seat from where the Congress had contested in the 2020 assembly polls, has rankled the Congress.

The Congress’ poor show in the assembly polls compared to a much better strike rate of the RJD has prompted a section of the leaders of the Bihar party to question the national party’s role in the alliance.

The RJD believes that Congress had been given more seats than its real strength in the state.