Patna, Aug. 30: The Congress is skating on thin ice in Bihar, with a section of the party even questioning continuation of the alliance with the RJD despite senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad attending the RJD's August 27 rally.

Things have come to such a pass that leader of the Congress in the Assembly, Sadanand Singh, has been called to Delhi. "The party high command has called him to give his assessment about continuing the alliance with the RJD in Bihar," a senior Congress leader said, stressing that many MLAs did not want to remain in the alliance.

During the rally, an audio message from Sonia Gandhi was played out and state president Ashok Choudhary read out a message from Rahul Gandhi. But local Congress leaders fumed about state leaders being sidetracked. Sadanand Singh said he was not invited to the rally. Other party leaders expressed disgust over their state party president being given a backseat on the stage. "The trouble is that if we do not hear the pleas of our MLAs, there could be a split in the party," said a senior party leader.

In his recent speech in the state legislative Council, chief minister Nitish Kumar had attacked the RJD but gone soft on the Congress. Also, during the monsoon session, when RJD MLAs stormed into the Well of the House over the Srijan scam, Congress MLAs had remained aloof. They did not even hold chief minister Nitish Kumar responsible for the scam. It was left to Central leaders to criticise Nitish on the same account. In fact ever since Nitish walked out of the Grand Alliance, Congress leaders' criticism of Nitish has been muted.

The party high command is aware of the possible revolt in the party and earlier this month sent in Jyotiraditya Scindia and J.P. Agarwal to quell defection. The two central leaders held talks with most of the 27 Congress MLAs and district leaders. At that time both leaders ruled out a split in the party.

Senior party leaders point out why several Congress MLAs need to leave the alliance and join the JDU. There are at least four Congress MLAs, like Manohar Singh, Poonam Yadav, Anil Kumar and Vinay Verma, who were earlier in the JDU and contested on a Congress ticket in the 2015 Assembly polls and would have no problems rejoining their original party. There are a few more who were fielded by the Congress at Nitish's behest.

"But the real problem of the Congress are the upper caste MLAs who number over half a dozen. They know they cannot hope to retain their seats if they contest as Congress candidates backed by only the RJD. The will lose the upper caste votes they got because those are rabidly anti-Lalu," said a senior Congress leader. Nitish would require 18 of the 27 Congress MLAs to split the party. JDU sources indicate the number was "achievable".