RJD-Congress rift widens in Bihar after Assembly election setback

After the defeat in the recently concluded Assembly elections in Bihar, a rift has apparently deepened within the Opposition mahagathbandhan, with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Saturday launching a sharp attack on ally Congress, saying, “If they [Congress party] want to have its own way in Bihar, let it be, they will know their real strength”.

Both the Congress and the RJD are currently holding review meetings to assess reasons for the parties’ dismal performance in the Assembly elections. The Opposition mahagathbandhan secured only 35 seats in the 243-member House, while the ruling NDA won 202 seats. Under the alliance, the Congress won only six of the 60 seats it contested in the 2025 Assembly election.

“If they (Congress party) want to chart out a different political course in Bihar, let them do it. They will know their real strength,” RJD State president Mangani Lal Mandal told media persons in Patna on Saturday. Mr. Mandal further said that “RJD has a strong support base and RJD’s alliance partners only got benefited from it”.

Earlier on November 28, some Congress leaders, in a review meeting in Delhi, had pointed fingers at the RJD for the party’s defeat, Mr. Mandal said. “If Congress party has no support base why RJD keep it under alliance. Mr. Mandal should raise such issues at proper party forum and not to the media,” said Congress spokesperson Asit Nath Tiwari. Reacting to this, the RJD State president recalled that in the 2020 Assembly elections “Congress party had contested on 70 seats and won 19 seats only because of RJD support”.

The RJD is holding its review meeting on reasons for the defeat at the State party headquarters in Patna, and it is scheduled to conclude on December 9.

Meanwhile, the State Assembly is scheduled to begin its four to five day session from December 1, and all newly elected RJD legislators met on Saturday at party leader Tejashwi Yadav’s official residence at 1, Polo Road. At the meeting, the Opposition RJD MLAs discussed strategy and issues to be raised in the upcoming legislative session.

Meanwhile, former Minister and senior BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain took a jibe at the internal rift between the RJD and the Congress following the electoral debacle, saying, “They [Congress-RJD] were fighting even before the elections and doing the same after the election results. It is bound to happen between them as their ties are meant for political gains and it is based not on any ideology.” “Their alliance is unholy,” Mr. Hussain asserted.