In a big blow to the Congress?s hopes of revival in the Hindi heartland, the Rahul factor that it was banking on failed completely in Bihar. Out of the 22 Assembly constituencies where Rahul Gandhi addressed rallies, the Congress had just one winner, former PCC chief Sadanand Singh from Kahalgaon.
The Congress tally in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha is now down to its lowest ever ? from 9 in 2005 to 4. Apart from Kahalgaon, the party won Kasba, Kishanganj and Bahadurganj Assembly seats, the last two falling in Kishanganj district. Although Rahul had visited Kishanganj in February, it was long before campaigning started. Congress president Sonia Gandhi had later campaigned in Kishanganj.
While congratulating Nitish Kumar on Wednesday, Sonia claimed the party ?did not have much hope? from the elections. She also admitted that the Congress needed to rebuild itself from the scratch in the state.
In most of the constituencies where Rahul campaigned ? drawing crowds which obviously didn?t translate into votes ? Congress candidates came in third, fourth or even further down? sixth in Sasaram; fifth in Obra and Manjhi; fourth in Saharsa, Muzaffarpur, Munger, Kuchaiote, and Bachhwara; and third in Kalyanpur, Samastipur, Jamalpur, Belsand and Hisua.
There were only a couple of constituencies, like Ramnaar and Barbigha, visited by Rahul where party candidates came second. His rally couldn?t save even sitting MLA Sunita Devi, contesting from Korha Assembly constituency. The BJP candidate trounced her by over 52,000 votes.
?As far as our party is concerned, we did not have much hope,? Sonia told reporters at the party headquarters in Delhi. ?We took a deliberate decision not to work in alliance with other parties. Results obviously indicate that our party has to start from the scratch to rebuild itself and that is what we plan to do.?
AICC general secretary in charge of Bihar Mukul Wasnik refused to accept that Rahul?s magic had failed in Bihar. ?The time which Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi gave to Bihar benefited us greatly. It enthused our party workers. None of their rallies had fewer crowds. But as far as election results are concerned, they are a different issue. We have to find out the reason as to why we could not translate the huge crowds that came for rallies addressed by our party leaders into votes,? he said.
Rahul?s whirlwind campaign was stretched over seven days in 17 districts in the state and he addressed at least two to three rallies everyday. Most of his speeches as well as those of Sonia?s attacked Nitish?s development plank, contending that funds were given to the state by the Centre and lay unutilised.
That seemed not to have cut much ice with the voters, as well as Rahul?s constant invoking of the ?two Indias?, a rich and a poor one, and how the gap between the two needed to be bridged.
Addressing a rally at Saharsa on September 4, Rahul stated: ?Your state government claims that Bihar has progressed, but show me where development has taken place… There was a time when Bihar & UP were the most developed states in the country. Today both the states are lagging behind.?