The Bihar unit of Congress has landed itself in a soup after posters identifying castes and religion of its senior leaders, including party president Rahul Gandhi, came up at major thoroughfares across the state capital.
The posters come a week after the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) was reconstituted and former minister Madan Mohan Jha was installed as its president, while four others – Kaukab Quadri, Ashok Kumar, Sameer Kumar Singh, and Shyam Sunder Dhiraj — were appointed as its working president. Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh was appointed as the campaign committee chairman and working and advisory committees were approved, too.
The posters thank Rahul Gandhi and Shakti Singh Gohil, AICC in-charge of Bihar, for "setting an example of social harmony in the newly constituted committee". They were put up by Siddharth Kshatriya, a former functionary of the BPCC.
In the posters, which prominently display castes of each leader, both national president Gandhi and state president Jha have been identified as those representing the "Brahmin community". Among others, Gohil was shown as one from "Rajput Samuday", Quadri representing the "Muslim community", Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Singh as "Bhumihar", and Congress Legislature Party leader Sadanand Singh as "Pichhda".
In all, 12 prominent leaders of the party could be seen in the posters along with their caste, community or religion mentioned over their photographs – including Dalit and "Bhumihar". Some senior leaders such as MLC Prem Chandra Mishra said such posters were uncalled for.
However, the ruling BJP and JD-U have said the posters "expose" the true face of the Grand Old Party which "wants to further deepen the caste divides to win the coming elections".
BJP leader Nikhil Anand said the Election Commission of India should take note of the posters. JD-U MLC Neeraj Kumar said the Congress party was compelled to resort to such measures as it is no longer popular among the masses.
