Bihar: Lastly, the Congress stands as much as be counted

Ask a pedestrian in Patna the way in which to Sadaquat Ashram and likelihood is that you’d be met with a quizzical look. The headquarters of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) has been a sprawling however sleepy place since 1990, when the final Congress chief minister Satyendra Narayan Sinha misplaced the election. Paradoxically, it was right here that Lalu Prasad Yadav was elected chief of the Janata Dal legislature social gathering and thereby the chief minister for the primary time.

No marvel it now not rings a bell. It has been downhill since then for the Congress though Sadaquat Ashram has a wonderful historical past. An orchard which stood on the website was readily handed over by the proprietor, Khairu Mian, to Maulana Mazharul Huq, a barrister and shut affiliate of Mahatma Gandhi for the reason that Champaran satyagraha.

Maulana Mazharul Huq used his personal assets to construct the construction of the Bihar Vidyapith, visualised by Gandhi as a nationwide college free of presidency management. It was right here that leaders of the liberty battle would meet, the place Gandhiji and Kasturba stayed and the place the primary President of India, Rajendra Prasad, lived after retirement.

These recollections have light with the Congress taking a backseat in state politics. The social gathering is, nonetheless, exhibiting some indicators of life now. Between 1980 and 1990, when the Congress was in energy, it tried out as many as 5 chief ministers, all from the higher castes — Jagannath Mishra, Chandrashekhar Singh, Bindeswari Dubey, Bhagwat Jha Azad and Satyendra Narayan Sinha.

That’s the reason the adjustments in 2025 are so stark. Shivprakash ‘Gareebdas’ Yadav heads the Youth Congress within the state, Suraj Yadav leads the scholar wing NSUI, Sanjay Yadav oversees the Seva Dal and the ladies’s cell is headed by Sharbat Jahan Fatimah.