With the Bihar Assembly elections about seven months away, the Congress has appointed its Dalit leader and two-time Kutumba MLA Rajesh Kumar as the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) president.
Expressing his gratitude to the Congress leadership for his elevation, Rajesh Kumar, 56, said, “I am thankful to the party for reposing its faith and confidence in me. My two main priorities would be strengthening the Congress’s organisational base and leading the party in taking on the NDA government over its failures on the development front while proposing a blueprint to deal with migration and joblessness.”
With his appointment, the Congress now has a troika of young leaders in Bihar, including All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of the state Krishna Allavaru and Kanhaiya Kumar, the AICC in-charge of the party’s student wing, National Students Union of India (NSUI).
A resident of Obra in Aurangabad district, Rajesh Kumar started his political innings under the guidance of his father Dilkeshwar Ram, a two-time state minister between 1980 and 1985. He hails from the Ravidas community, which accounts for about 5.25% of the state’s 19.65% Scheduled Caste (SC) population. For the last 10 years, he has served as the head of the BPCC’s SC/ST cell apart from being the state party general secretary from 2010 to 2016.
“It is a good appointment because Rajesh Kumar is a good speaker and is young. He can take the party forward at this crucial time. The party also knows that it needs to add Dalits to its base as ally RJD has a support base among Yadavs and Muslims,” a Congress leader from Bihar said.
Rajesh has now become the first Dalit Congress leader in eight year to head the BPCC. His elevation is also being viewed as an attempt to curb the “influence” of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad over the state party unit as Rajesh’s predecessor Akhilesh Prasad Singh was known to be close to Lalu.
Rajesh had made his unsuccessful debut in the October 2005 Assembly polls as an Independent. Five years later, he lost again as a Congress nominee. He first hit the headlines in 2015 when he defeated HAM(S) candidate and current minister Santosh Kumar Suman in the Kutumba constituency. In the 2020 polls, amid an NDA wave, Rajesh was one of the few Congress leaders to retain his seat, defeating HAM(S) candidate Shravan Bhuyan.
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Known to keep a low profile, Rajesh remained in the shadows of other Dalit leaders like Ashok Ram and ex-BPCC chief Ashok Kumar Choudhary for a major part of his political career.
Rajesh’s elevation is also being seen in the Congress circles as the party’s attempt to “correct the wrongs done by Choudhary”. Choudhary, who had been the Bihar Congress chief from 2013 to 2017, fell out with the party leadership amid his alleged bid to split the party unit. Eventually, Choudhary quit the Congress in 2018 and joined the JD(U), serving currently as a minister in the Nitish Kumar Cabinet.
The Congress then went on to name Madan Mohan Jha (a Brahmin leader) and later Akhilesh Prasad Singh (a Bhumihar leader) as the BPCC chiefs.
However, with the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, pitching for greater representation of Dalits and backward and extremely backward classes (OBCs and EBCs) in positions of power, there had been a growing clamour for replacement of Akhilesh Prasad Singh, whose move to invite Lalu as the chief guest for an event marking the birth anniversary of first Bihar CM Srikirshna Singh in October last year had not gone down well with several Congress leaders.
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Welcoming Rajesh’s appointment, senior Congress leader Prem Chandra Mishra said, “Finally, we have an original Congressman at the helm in Bihar. Rajesh Kumar is a true organisation man.”
