Patna:

In a setback for the Congress in Bihar ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, former state president Anil Sharma on Sunday quit the party, claiming it was trapped in a “disastrous” partnership with the RJD.

The news was announced at a press conference here by Anil Sharma, who also took aim at the recent “hype” of controversial former MP Rajesh Ranjan aka Pappu Yadav’s induction was met with disgust.

“Today, the party leadership is busy holding a rally in Delhi to discuss the need to save democracy. But sadly, democracy is not seen in the Congress and even our duly elected President of the country cannot speak without consulting Rahul Gandhi or his close aide KC Venugopal,” claimed Anil Sharma.

Anil Sharma became the fourth former Bihar Congress president to quit the party in the past decade. The latest example is Ashok Chaudhary, who quit the party and joined the JD(U) in 2018, months after a factional feud led to him relinquishing the state president’s post.

Earlier, in 2015, Ram Jatan Sinha quit the Congress and has been stuck in the political wilderness after a brief stint in the JD(U). The year before, Mehboob Ali Kaiser had joined the late Ram Vilas Paswan’s PPP, which helped him get elected to the Lok Sabha for two consecutive terms from Khagaria.

Anil Sharma, however, insists that he is different, saying: “I joined the Congress in 1985. In nearly four decades, I held organizational positions twice, first as State Secretary and then State President. I never lobbied for a congressional ticket. “Or get myself a legislative committee seat. I also did not explore the possibility of any other political party before quitting Congress. ” On the timing of his move ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, he said: “Ever since I became the state president, I have been critical of the collaboration with the RJD that helped them prosper at our expense. “To the people, we are finally being convicted just for supporting the jungle rule of Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi.” Anil Sharma said when Pappu Ya The last straw came when Pappu Yadav joined the party.

“In fact, he was felicitated at the national headquarters. The party was upset that Lalu thwarted its attempt to provide electoral votes to Yadav. Instead, it should have considered many better candidates but they did not stand a chance because the state The leadership of the major parties cannot play their part until now. “Both are overbearing allies,” he said.

Notably, out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, the RJD is contesting in 26 seats, of which nine seats are reserved for the Congress and five seats for the three Left parties.

Replying to a question, Anil Sharma said the RJD’s choice of candidates showed that “tickets have been sold without regard to winability” and that there was a possibility of a “tacit understanding” with the BJP, as some speculated Sex Media said in the case of Mayawati BSP in neighboring Uttar Pradesh that “this possibility cannot of course be ruled out”.

Meanwhile, state Congress media cell chairman Rajesh Rathore issued a statement slamming Anil Sharma for trying to “cowardly escape” and looking for “an excuse to fall at the feet of Narendra Modi”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)