Bihar Elections 2025: Bihar, where the Congress used to dominate the time, the party has been out of power for the last three and a half decades. The Congress is desperate to get back its lost land and Rahul Gandhi had a big stake for this return. He set the agenda of ‘social justice’ on the pretext of constitution and reservation. But as the heat of the election increased, the move of the Congress also started changing. This journey started with social justice is now stuck on the issue of ‘vote theft’. In such a situation, the question arises whether the real and important issues of Bihar will be left behind in this new noise?
Start of campaign from social justice
Rahul Gandhi started the Congress’s election campaign in Bihar with social justice. On January 18, in a program organized in the name of ‘Constitution Defense’ in Patna, he raised the issue of caste census and participation of Dalit-backwards. After this, in February, he attended the 130th birth anniversary of Pasi Samaj leader Jaglal Chaudhary. Prior to July, all five of his tour were focused on reservation, constitution and social justice. He connected many leaders of Dalit society with his mission, including Professor Ratan Lal of Delhi University.
Rahul’s focus on Dalit-OBC
From January to July, Rahul Gandhi met Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes people in his visit to Bihar and advocated the removal of 50% reservation limit. He also included the son of Pasmanda Muslim Mahaj, former MP Ali Anwar Ansari and Dasharatha Manjhi’s son in the Congress. Dasharatha Manjhi comes from the Mushar caste of Dalit society. The Congress is again trying to make its inroads between its old core vote bank, ie Dalit and backward castes. Rahul had clarified his intention by making Dalit leader Rajesh Ram the state president and Sushil Pasi as co-integrated.
Padyatra on employment and migration
The Congress also seriously raised the issue of Bihar’s youth and employment. A padyatra was taken out under the leadership of Kanhaiya Kumar, named ‘Job Do, Exodus Roco’. The yatra started from West Champaran and ended in Patna. Through this visit, the Congress tried to set a political negative set of education, jobs and migration. The Congress gave a message through this visit that people are forced to migrate for studies, treatment and earning in Bihar and Nitish Sarkar has failed to solve this problem.
Sudden campaign focused on ‘vote theft’
While the Congress was working on issues like social justice, employment and migration on the one hand, the party changed its strategy as soon as the special amendment process (SIR) of the Election Commission’s voter list started. Rahul Gandhi started the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ and traveled 1300 km through more than 20 districts in 17 days. Since then, the focus of the party was completely focused on the issue of ‘vote theft’. Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP and the Election Commission of rigging the voter list, giving the example of Karnataka and Maharashtra. He claimed that the names of Congress voters were deliberately removed from the voter list.
Bihar worried about the important issues of Bihar being left behind
The way Rahul Gandhi is attacked on the issue of ‘vote theft’, it is being linked to Bihar elections. Even though his ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ has received good response, some party leaders are worried that due to more attention to this new issue, the basic issues of the Congress, such as social justice, employment and corruption, are being left behind. On the other hand, leaders like Prashant Kishore are setting up issues like youth jobs, education and setting up political negative, and CM Nitish Kumar is engaged in maintaining his political atmosphere with populist announcements. In this situation, the issue of ‘vote theft’ has become the most important for the Congress, due to which the real issues affecting Bihar are becoming secondary.
Tejashwi caught a different path
Rahul Gandhi may be trying to connect ‘vote theft’ with welfare schemes, but the leaders of the Grand Alliance believe that this issue is not as effective at the ground level. This is the reason why RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has tried to raise the issues by starting the ‘Bihar Adhikar Yatra’, which are directly related to the general public. Tejashwi is focusing on the issues of employment, women empowerment, education and farmers in his visit, which makes it clear that he is not in favor of winning the election with ‘votes theft’ only.
