Bihar's Mahagathbandhan breaks: Congress declares 'Will contest all 40 seats solo in 2024'

In a shocking move, Congress has ended its 'Mahagathbandhan' with RJD in Bihar, announcing that it will contest on all 40 Lok Sabha seats in 2024. Speaking to reporters in Patna, Congress in-charge Bhakt Charan Das announced that the party will contest all upcoming elections solo. This remark comes amid Congress-RJD's tiff for the two seats - Tarapur and Kusheshwarsthan up for bypolls on October 30. Bypolls have been necessitated after JDU MLAs - Mewalal Chaudhary and Shashi Bhushan Hazari's death.

Congress-RJD feud over bypolls

RJD refused to cede a single seat to ally Congress stating 'it won't be able to win any seat' - fielding Arun Kumar for Tarapur and Ganesh Bharti in Kusheshwarsthan. While Congress accused RJD of conspiring with BJP against it, the Left Front including CPI, CPI(M), and CPI(M-L) have backed RJD. For the by-polls, JDU has fielded Rajiv Kumar Singh from Tarapur and Aman Bhushan Hazari, son of three-time MLA Shashi Hazari for Kusheshwarsthan, with the backing of BJP and other NDA partners like the Hindustani Awam Morcha and Vikassheel Insaan Party. On the other hand,  Rajesh Mishra of the Congress eye to rob JDU of a seat in Tarapur, while Atirek Ram has been fielded in  Kusheshwarsthan.

While RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has hit the streets on an extensive campaign, he is facing embarrassment back home from elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav. Tej Pratap, who has floated his own organisation 'Chatra Janshakti Parishad', endorsed the Congress candidates for the seats. Tej Pratap has been miffed since he, along with sister Misa Bharti and mother Rabri Devi were not named in RJD's star campaigners. He has accused Tejashwi of eyeing the party's top post and keeping his father Lalu Yadav hostage in Delhi.

Bihar polls & Congress

Ushering Nitish Kumar's 6th stint as Chief Minister, the ruling coalition - NDA won 125 in the 243-member assembly, against Mahagathbandhan's 110.  Even as the contest remained neck and neck throughout the day, RJD under the leadership of Tejashwi Yadav, became the single largest party with 75 seats, followed by BJP's 74. Congress came third, winning 19 of 70 seats it contested. While Chirag Paswan's LJP won one seat, it made a major dent in JDU's tally that has come down to 43 from 71 in 2015. The biggest clincher is Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM winning 5 seats and CPI-ML  winning 12 seats. The other two left parties - CPI and CPI-M won two each. The other two alliance partners of NDA - HAM and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) won four seats each.