Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) chief Rajesh Ranjan aka Pappu Yadav slammed Bihar’s ruling Grand Alliance’s proposed rally at Purnea on February 25 on the grounds that the date clashes with the three-day national convention of the Congress from February 24 to 26 at Raipur in Chhattisgarh.

Top Congress leaders in Bihar agreed with the issue raised by Yadav despite the fact that he heads a different party and is not even a part of the Grand Alliance.

They agreed that attention should have been paid when the date of the rally was being decided. Yadav demanded a change in the date of the Grand Alliance rally.

The event is being seen as the beginning of its 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign in Bihar and an effort to showcase the unity of the seven-party Grand Alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“Everybody has information about Congress’ national convention at Raipur. It will give a wrong message if the largest Opposition party (Congress) in the country is not present at it, or its senior leaders are unable to attend,” Yadav told reporters in Patna.

Talking further about the clash of the dates, Yadav asserted that proper attention should have been paid to avoid such a situation.

“If you are preparing to counter the BJP and oust it from power at the Centre, you cannot allow such mistakes. Things should be fine-tuned. The Grand Alliance should postpone the rally to a later date to ensure that top Congress leaders are present at it. This will be the real solidarity and unity,” Yadav added.

Though the five-time former Lok Sabha member currently heads his own party, his wife Ranjeet Ranjan is at present a Congress Rajya Sabha member. She has been a member of the Grand Old Party for the past couple of decades.

Yadav’s words resonated among the leaders of the Bihar Congress and several senior leaders approved of it. However, many of them shied away from coming forth with statements on it either to avoid controversy in the alliance or out of the fear of displeasing the party’s high command.

Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) president and Rajya Sabha member Akhilesh Prasad Singh told The Telegraph: “We had sent our MLC and former state president Madan Mohan Jha to attend the discussions on the proposed joint rally of the Grand Alliance. He failed to raise the issue at it or refer to our national convention. He should have done it. But now that everything is fixed, I do not see any point in having a rethink on it.”

Singh added that it was true that all the senior leaders of his party would be busy with the national convention and might not be able to attend the Grand Alliance rally at Purnea.

“Maybe the All India Congress Committee (AICC) will treat it as a special case and send me, especially from the national convention to attend the alliance rally at Purnea,” he hoped.

A few Congress leaders alleged that they were being sidelined in the alliance.