Bihar’s Congress machinery rattled after the party’s 0‑seat finish in the latest MLC elections, with MP Manoj Kumar turning the spotlight on a disjointed campaign strategy.
Kumar, who had campaigned on the sidelines, said he was not contacted to mobilise voters for any of the five seats the party fielded, leaving him to visit the Sadaquat Ashram of the Dalit community on his own.
“We were not asked to campaign or even to seek votes from the Dalit community,” he told reporters, adding that despite having three sitting MPs in the state, only the ailing Tariq Anwar was present to represent the party, while the other two were allegedly sidelined.
He slammed the central leadership for ignoring the call to “wake up” whenever elections loom, claiming that the lack of coordination made the party appear asleep at the ballot box.
The criticism rings louder amid a history of disgruntled cadres—Anand Madhav, former MLA Chhatrapati Yadav—who have raised concerns about irregular ticket allocations and called for a change in the state’s leadership.
In his interview, Kumar made it clear that his grievances are aimed at the state wing, not the central leadership, and he urged the party to conduct an internal audit to pinpoint the decision‑making bottlenecks that led to the electoral flop.
The central Congress chair will review Kumar’s demands in the coming days, with a meeting slated for next week to decide on any disciplinary action against the state cadre.