A Tense Alliance

A pointed remark made by Congress general secretary Sachin Pilot in Patna on April 11 was enough for Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav to reach out to his key ally's top leadership.

- Amitabh Srivastava

Pilot had said that the chief ministerial candidate of the RJD-Congress alliance in Bihar would be decided only after the election later this year. Widely seen as a message to the RJD not to take the Congress for granted, the statement appeared to signal a shift in tone.

By April 15, Tejashwi was in New Delhi, meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi. Behind closed doors, he is learnt to have revisited the bitter memory of the 2020 election, where the alliance missed power by just 12 seats. The RJD had emerged as the single largest party, winning 75 of the 144 seats it contested; the Congress, however, won just 19 out of 70, dragging the coalition short of a majority. Even the Left had done its bit, winning 16 out of 29.

As a concession, on April 17-just two days after the New Delhi meeting-Tejashwi was named the head of the INDIA bloc's coordination committee, responsible for seat-sharing and other poll strategies in Bihar. It signalled that the Congress is not looking to rock the boat-yet.