Rajesh Kumar becomes the new president of Bihar Congress( Congress) 

Ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections later this year, the Congress on Tuesday made a major organizational change in the state by appointing Dalit leader Rajesh Kumar as the new president of its state unit. Kumar, a second-time MLA from Kutumba in Aurangabad district, will replace Rajya Sabha MP and former Union minister Akhilesh Prasad Singh. According to a release issued by the party’s organization general secretary KC Venugopal, “Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has appointed Rajesh Kumar as the President of Bihar Pradesh Congress  ( Congress)  Committee with immediate effect.”

Rajesh Kumar becomes the new president of Bihar Congress

The appointment of Kumar in place of Singh, an upper caste leader considered close to senior ally RJD in Bihar, reflects a strategic shift on the part of the Congress. The Congress is trying to aggressively make inroads among the deprived castes through Rahul Gandhi’s dual slogan of “Save the Constitution” and the demand for a nationwide caste census. Akhilesh Prasad Singh has good relations with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad. He was once part of the RJD. He became the president of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee in 2022. Rajesh Kumar is an MLA from Kutumba assembly constituency in Aurangabad district. He was elected MLA in 2015 and 2020.

Elections will be held in October-November

The change in Congress strategy was also felt last month with the appointment of young, aggressive technocrat Krishna Allavaru as the new AICC in-charge for Bihar. Allavaru, who replaced Congress veteran Mohan Prakash, had made his intentions clear on a recent visit to Patna when he rejected suggestions that the Congress was the RJD’s “B team”, saying, “Hum log ki A team hain (we are the people’s A team)”. Even NDA leaders like Union minister Chirag Paswan, who once considered the Congress a dead force in Bihar, are seeing a shift in the party’s stance and predict that if the RJD tries to carve out too much for itself, the national party may prefer to go it alone in the state. Bihar is likely to go for assembly elections in October-November this year.