New Delhi: In the run up to Bihar Assembly elections, the Congress 'war room' is buzzing with activity again as leaders hold strategy sessions with the aim of replicating the party's impressive performance in Uttar Pradesh in the last Lok Sabha polls.
Senior leaders including Pranab Mukherjee, Ahmed
Patel, Digvijay Singh, Prithviraj Chavan and AICC general
secretary in-charge of the state Mukul Wasnik have been
holding frequent meetings at the 'war room' in a ministerial
bungalow on Gurdwara Rakabganj Road.
The leaders have been finalising the campaign strategy
and the issues to be taken up in the run up to the polls in
the state, where the party is out of power for nearly two
decades. The party currently has only 10 MLAs in the
234-member assembly and won two out of the 40 Lok Sabha
seats in general elections last year.
The technologically well-equipped centre will serve
as a hub of party activities and will also look after the
publicity material.
Having failed to make any inroads in the last assembly
election in the state when it had tie-up with the RJD, the
party has decided to go it alone this time.
The revival of the party in Uttar Pradesh, where it
raised its tally from nine to 22 in the Lok Sabha polls last
year, has brought hopes of a turnaround in Bihar, which was
the bastion of the party for four decades till 1989.
After the rout in the general elections, Lalu Prasad's
RJD, which has allied with Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP, is making
a bid to return to power in the state, where the NDA chief
Minister Nitish Kumar is going to the polls on the plank of
development.
PTI
First Published: Friday, July 30, 2010, 21:51