Confident Congress to contest all 243 seats in Bihar

For nearly two decades, the Congress has been playing the second fiddle in Bihar politics. But for the 2010 assembly election, the party has decided to go all out and contest all the 243 seats.

“People of the state, especially youths, are tired of the caste-based politics that has left the state backward. Youths now favour a development oriented politics and the Congress has promised just that,” Congress general secretary and Union minister for social justice Mukul Wasnik said.

Wasnik, the party’s incharge for Bihar affairs, told DNA that the process of finalising the candidates should begin by second week. “We hope to finalise all our candidates by third week,” he said.

With just ten seats in the outgoing assembly, the Congress has small presence in the state, which has been dominated by two backward leaders — chief minister Nitish Kumar and former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. With some high-powered campaigns by prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, general secretary Rahul Gandhi and other central leaders, the party is looking to regain some of the lost ground this time.

A major challenge for the party managers in this contest is to organise a strong and credible campaign that ends up in bolstering the party’s standing in the state’s politics.