In a bid to energise its cadre and stake a stronger claim in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections 2025, the Congress party is gearing up for a high-profile entry into the state’s political arena.
Party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will hold her first rally in Motihari, titled the “Har Ghar Adhikar Rally.” Former state Congress president and Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Singh stated that the rally will serve as the Grand Alliance’s formal election launch, though the exact date is yet to be finalized.
The Motihari rally is expected to mark Priyanka Gandhi’s debut on Bihar’s electoral stage and serve as a major show of strength ahead of the seat-sharing negotiations with allies.
Prior to the Motihari rally, the Congress will host an important Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting at Patna’s Sadaqat Ashram on September 24, with top leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, K.C. Venugopal, and others attending.
The twin events — the CWC meeting and the Motihari rally — are seen as a strategy to apply pressure on the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) during the finalisation of the Grand Alliance’s seat-sharing formula.
Congress sources indicate that the party is eyeing more than 70 seats, despite its poor performance in the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, where it contested 70 seats but won only 19.
The RJD, the largest party in the alliance, is reportedly hesitant to concede as many seats this time, citing Congress’s underwhelming past performance.
The RJD also faces the challenge of accommodating other partners, including Mukesh Sahani’s VIP, Pashupati Kumar Paras’s Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP), and Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
Additionally, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav is keen to engage Left parties — particularly the CPI-ML, which had a strong showing in 2020 by winning 12 of the 19 seats it contested. The CPI and CPI-M also outperformed Congress in terms of strike rate in the previous election.
Regarding seat-sharing, Akhilesh Singh said that all details have been cleared and “everything will be revealed when the time comes.”
On internal family disputes within the Lalu family, Congress leader Akhilesh Prasad Singh remarked, “We know Lalu’s family intimately. Once Lalu Prasad scolds them, everything will calm down.”