- "I have a suspicion that there may be another big division of Congress in the future," PM Modi has said
- He has accused the Congress of pursuing divisive politics based on religion and caste
- Congress vote share in Bihar has dropped from 9.48% in 2020 to around 8%
Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- on a day the NDA achieved a sweeping victory in Bihar -- predicted the possibility of the Congress undergoing another split and warned its allies that they need to be wary of the Grand Old Party.
"The Congress criticises the Election Commission, makes frivolous complaints about baseless issues like 'vote chori', divides people on basis of religion and caste... The Congress has no positive vision for the country," he said in his address to BJP workers and supporters at party headquarters in Delhi.
"The truth is that today, Congress, and I say this very seriously, today Congress has become the Muslim League Maoist Congress... And the entire agenda of Congress now runs on this. And because of this, even within Congress, a new branch is emerging, which is even worse than this negative politics," he said.
Read: "Ganga Flows From Bihar To Bengal, Created Path Of Victory For BJP": PM Modi
The emergence of this section, he said, has created deep disappointment within the Congress ranks.
"And I have a suspicion that there may be another big division of Congress in the future. And friends, the supporters of Congress have also begun to understand that Congress is drowning everyone in its negative politics. Everyone is drowning at the same time," he added.
While Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal has posted one of its worst performances in Bihar today, leading in around 25 seats, the Congress has slipped from the 19 seats it won in 2020 to leading in around five seats. Its vote share has also plunged from 9.48 per cent to around 8 per cent.
The party's performance in 2020 was considered sub-par and it had upset ally RJD and cast a shadow on the seat sharing process this time. The two parties failed to come to a consensus and ended up fielding candidates unilaterally, leading to friendly contests in a handful of seats.
Both parties, however, insisted it was deliberate and was dictated by the ground realities in various seats.
The Congress also ran a lacklustre campaign ahead of the election which had fizzled out after the initial adrenalin-driven Voter Adhikar Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi. On a few occasions, he was joined by Tejashwi Yadav on stage. But by the time the BJP's formidable election machinery swept the state, Gandhi was missing in action, leaving the RJD upset.
The upshot -- the NDA is now set to sweep Bihar, surging ahead in around 200 of the state's 243 seats. The BJP is set to emerge as the single-largest party with nearly 95 per cent strike rate, reaffirming the popularity of PM Modi. A resurgent JDU is close behind, with voters backing the aging Nitish Kumar despite reports of anti-incumbency and his ill health.
