Rahul meets Bihar Congress chief, Joshi ahead of MLAs meet

Amid indication that Congress is likely to participate in the grand alliance government in Bihar, Rahul Gandhi on Friday met AICC general secretary CP Joshi and PCC chief Ashok Choudhari, a pre-cursor to his proposed confabulations with newly-elected party MLAs on November 19.

Sources said that Gandhi inquired in detail about the gains made by the party in Bihar during the meeting, which lasted for around 45 minutes. On specifics he also wanted to know why the party lost on some seats, which it had earlier bracketed in A category from the winnability point of view. They include seats like Govindganj, Ramnagar, Pranpur and Valmikinagar.

The Congress vice-president will meet all the 27 newly-elected MLAs and five MLCs on November 19 to seek their views on participation in government and related issues.

There is an indication that the party could participate in the alliance government in Bihar. The grand alliance has won 178 seats with RJD winning 80, JDU 71 and Congress 27. Besides that of Chief Minister, there are 35 more berths to be shared, which makes it one portfolio for five seats each.

PCC chief Ashok Chowdhury, who met Gandhi on Friday said that the defeat of BJP happened because “Rahul Gandhi played a key role in forging the alliance” and backed Nitish Kumar as the CM face of the alliance.