By Kavita Mistry 
New Delhi: A meeting between the Congress high command and the party’s leaders from Bihar on Thursday saw heated exchanges over the roles of state chief Rajesh Ram and All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge Krishna Allavaru, among others.
It is understood that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi separately met with six MLAs and candidates who had lost, in batches.
The closed-door sessions, with batches of 10 candidates each, stretched until about 7 pm at Indira Bhavan, the party’s new national headquarters.
Sources in the party said that two candidates had a particularly angry confrontation when the huddle was forming ahead of Kharge and Rahul’s arrival. Er. Sanjeev Singh, who contested unsuccessfully from Vaishali, accused the state leadership of bringing in “outsiders”, which led to objections from Purnia candidate Jitendra Kumar.
Kumar is perceived to be close to Lok Sabha MP Pappu Yadav, who won from Purnia as an Independent candidate and has since supported the Congress. Yadav, who was also present at the meeting, denied any such altercation took place.
Er. Sanjeev Singh also issued a denial, but the sources confirmed the altercation occurred in the waiting room before their meeting with Kharge and Rahul.
When Kharge and Rahul were informed about the incident, they reprimanded Singh and warned others that such behaviour would result in disciplinary action. The leadership sought detailed reports from each candidate.
आज बिहार चुनाव परिणाम को लेकर सभी प्रत्याशियों और वरिष्ठ नेताओं के साथ गहन चर्चा हुई। जिसमें 2 तरह के आंकलन हुए।
पहला आकलन
⦁ वोट खरीदी
⦁ चुनाव प्रक्रिया की धज्जियां उड़ानादूसरा आकलन
⦁ महागठबंधन और कांग्रेस पार्टी: बिहार कांग्रेस प्रभारी @Allavaru जी pic.twitter.com/oDEwKwYrPC
— Bihar Congress (@INCBihar) November 27, 2025
An MP told ThePrint that he raised concerns during the meeting, suggesting that Allavaru should have toured the districts ahead of the elections, which were held in two phases on 6 and 11 November, rather than remaining in Patna.
He also criticised the approach of Rajesh Ram and Shakeel Ahmad Khan, the legislative party leader of Congress, in the state. “Someone needs to be held accountable. The in-charge spoke about reaching every booth, but he didn’t even visit every district,” the MP said.
An MLA pointed out that the cracks in the party’s alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), leading to “so-called friendly fights in at least 11 seats,” had damaged the Opposition’s prospects and sent a wrong message to the voters.
The MLA also highlighted the ‘Asaduddin Owaisi factor,’ noting that the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) had capitalised on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s polarising rhetoric by consolidating Muslims behind it through a communally charged counter-narrative.
In an interview with ThePrint earlier this month, Congress MP Tariq Anwar had flagged the AIMIM’s growing influence in Bihar.
Anwar had said that the victory of five AIMIM candidates reflected the increasing sway of fundamentalists among the Muslims, a reaction to the rising “Hindu communalism.” He suggested that parts of the community were shifting toward Muslim identity-based parties because they viewed the Congress as ineffective in countering the BJP.
Former Bihar Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh confirmed that a constituency-wise review was conducted during the meeting.
After the meeting ended, Rajesh Ram told reporters that the session continued late into the evening as everyone was given a fair hearing.
However, he avoided questions about the heated exchanges, claiming that “all the candidates said in unison that the legal process of SIR (Special Intensive Revision) was adopted to carry out vote theft through the Election Commission.”
Already a marginal player in the state’s politics, the Congress managed to win only six of the 61 seats it contested this time, registering an astonishingly low strike rate of 9.8 percent and coming tantalisingly close to its worst performance in 2010, when it won four seats.
(Edited by Tony Rai)