Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar says this Bihar election is unusually quiet. “Bihar ka voter is baar silent hai, bahut saari bhavishyavani galat hongi,” he tells The Quint during a visit to his village, Bihat in Begusarai.
‘Election decisions are not personal
On why he is not contesting the Bihar Assembly chunav, Kanhaiya said, “Contesting an election is not an individual decision. It is a collective decision of the party. I have contested the Lok Sabha elections — in 2019 from Begusarai and in 2024 from Delhi. After every Lok Sabha comes the Vidhan Sabha, but both times we did not contest the Assembly. It is not right that we fight every single chunav.”
When a new person enters, the old feel uneasy
Responding to reports that some leaders became uncomfortable after he became active in Bihar Congress, he said, “This is natural. In any field, when a new person arrives, those already established feel uneasy. Whether it is politics or cinema, an old star gets disturbed seeing a new one. But this is overhyped. The truth is every person’s role is limited.”
’Winability matters more than numbers
On why Congress is contesting fewer seats, he said, “Winability is more important than the number of seats. Whatever seats we have got, we are fighting them with full strength. Talks of a dostana sangharsh are baseless, our real struggle is with the BJP and those who divide the country.”
On Congress being called the ‘weak link’ in 2020, he said, “Quoting 19 wins out of 69 seats is incomplete. One must see local equations, Chirag Paswan’s role within the NDA, and how vote-splitting worked. It is not right to blame Congress based on wrong data. Congress has been made a ‘political excuse’. If Congress is nothing, why talk about it so much? And if it is something, then allies also accept that Congress is important.”
On Bihar’s power equation, Kanhaiya said, “The BJP is busy finishing the JDU. Nitish Kumar will become Bihar’s ‘Shinde’. The BJP wants the JDU to lose so that it can make its own Chief Minister. This whole NDA–NDA alignment will last only till the election. The real game is the BJP’s.”
Making Nitish ji the Chief Minister has always been a compulsion for the BJP. They wanted to finish him in 2020, and they are doing the same today.Kanhaiya Kumar, Congress
The media created the narrative of a split
Kanhaiya said, “Differences within the Mahagathbandhan were deliberately made into a big narrative. If there were a real fight, there would be no alliance and no seat-sharing. But the media leaves the real five-minute news and spends fifty-five minutes on ‘Mahagathbandhan ki foot’. In every election, this becomes the narrative. But no one talks about differences within BJP–JDU or the NDA. This is a saazish, real issues are removed.”
He added, “There is no discussion on paper leaks, unemployment, or education. The NDA has ruled Bihar for 20 years. What were the headlines? ‘A rat drank the liquor’, ‘A patient’s leg was chewed’, ‘A three-year degree took five years’, ‘A bridge was built where there is no river’. All this was hidden. But the ‘fight’ within the Mahagathbandhan is asked in every interview.”
On why Congress hasn’t announced a Chief Minister or Deputy Chief Minister face, Kanhaiya said, “Congress traditionally does not declare a CM face, whether it was Gehlot or Bhupesh Baghel. We are in a gathbandhan, and the face was already decided there — Tejashwi Yadav. Congress respected that decision.”