Nitish pact a missed chance, says Digvijaya, sparks debate

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh’s remark that the party missed an opportunity to align with Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] in the 2025 Bihar election sparked a debate with both Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and general secretary KC Venugopal denying Kumar was ever interested in a pact with the Congress.

Singh did a SWOT analysis of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to claim that the ruling dispensation is on the backfoot. He, however, said that in the past, BJP managed to align with the JD(U) and the Congress failed to retain its alliance with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and JDU.

According to two Congress Working Committee (CWC) members, Gandhi told all the CWC members that when he raised the “vote chori” (vote theft), most Congress leaders did not believe it was a big issue but now the majority of the leaders are in agreement and the special intensive revision (SIR) has become the biggest issue for the Opposition.

Later, he narrated how he had objected to selection of candidates in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Referring to a meeting to select a constitutional functionary, Gandhi said he reminded Modi that despite his objections, the PM is going ahead with the selection. “Modi said he was not doing anything new. The late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi also did the same. I told him, she lost an election (1977), to which Modi told me, ‘When we go, you will come’,” Gandhi told the CWC, according to three members of the committee.

He also indicated that his aim is to defeat Modi in the next election.

When asked for a reaction to Gandhi’s comments, Congress communication chief Jairam Ramesh told HT, “I don’t know where such stories come from.”

Senior MP Abhishek Singhvi said the government has faced three big crises—protests over farm laws, students’ protests over exam paper leaks and the current controversy over the chief election commissioner. “This time, the BJP is on the backfoot. He suggested that the party maintain a track II (unofficial interaction) with students and mobilize them because they forced education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign. Singhvi also advised the party to press ahead wholeheartedly with the impeachment notice against CEC Gyanesh Kumar.

Party leader K Raju suggested the party should to reach out to all those disenfranchised in the SIR.