A Congress leader from Bihar writes to the party’s top leadership to “inspect regional” parties

Following the defeat of the Congress candidate in the Jharkhand Rajya Sabha elections on 18 June and the party’s accusation of cross-voting by alliance parties such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), a senior leader of the Congress Party from Bihar had earlier written a letter to party president Rahul Gandhi and party president Kharge for a “deeper check by Mallikar”. incursions, with or without allies”.

“Regional parties naturally do not want the Congress to prosper at their own expense. This attitude of the regional parties must be checked by a more assertive policy aimed at deeper penetration, with or without allies,” wrote former All India Congress Committee member and current Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) member Kishore Kumar Jha.

During a telephonic conversation with The Hindu, Mr. Jha further added that after the electoral defeat of the Jharkhand Rajya Sabha candidate, “it is high time that the top leadership of the Congress party took note and acted on the letter I wrote earlier”.

“I have been saying for a long time that the alliance regional parties have often aligned themselves with the Congress party mostly in pursuit of their vested interests and split when it was convenient. This was evident in parties like Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Samajwadi Party (SP), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which themselves fielded DMK candidates. Mr. Jha further wrote in his letter.

In the letter, he added, “Congress as a national party must be bold not only in confronting the BJP but also in dealing with opportunistic allies”. Short-term setbacks should not force a party to look for shortcuts. As you must have realized, the party “suffers from systematic flaws and is often unable to sustain or build on the momentum you create, and this has become a recurring flop,” he wrote further. “Therefore, I request you to look into these matters and take timely remedial measures even if they require difficult or tough decisions to strengthen and strengthen the party,” Mr Jha said.

He also warned the party’s top leadership that “the BJP is contesting elections with a carefully calibrated strategy to convert even narrow margins into victories, and such overlap hurts the Congress to varying degrees. Naturally, regional parties do not want the Congress to prosper at their own expense.”

Published – 20 Jun 2026 04:50 IST