NEW FACES OF COUNCIL: (From left) JD(U) members Manjar Alam and Raj Kishore Kushwaha, Vivek Thakur (BJP) at the swearing-in ceremony of new members of the Legislative Council with chairman Awadhesh Narain Singh and chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

The Congress is in a quandary over whether to contest the Maharajganj byelections next month, its unease stemming from fears of a defeat with barely a year left for the Lok Sabha polls.

Officially, the party is yet to announce whether it will contest the June 2 byelection in Maharajganj but sources in the state leadership felt that several factors that have built up in the last few weeks could force the Congress to think against taking the plunge.

The bypoll has been necessitated by the death of RJD MP Umashankar Singh.

The polls are crucial for the JD(U) and the RJD given the troubles in the NDA.

The Congress reluctance stems from several factors. The party fears that a decrease in vote share from the 2009 polls — when Tarkeshwar Singh of the party got a little over 80,000 votes and came a distant third — can ruin its bargaining capacity to form an alliance with parties like the JD(U), if it breaks away from the BJP, or the RJD next year.

“We are not at all interested in contesting the bypoll,” a senior state Congress leader said on condition of anonymity, while admitting that the party does not have a “potential candidate” as well.

Another Congress leader said the party was not thinking of even supporting the RJD’s possible candidate Prabhunath Singh — who contested the 2009 election on a JD(U) ticket and got 2.06 lakh votes compared to 2.11 lakh of Umashankar — in the bypoll after he recently criticised Sonia Gandhi.

“We are not going to win and so we want to wait and watch for the time being. We want Nitish Kumar to lose as an anti-incumbency factor is also working against him. Similarly, the RJD’s win would also increase its bargaining power next year,” said another senior party leader wishing anonymity.

He added that the party is restructuring itself for the 2014 general elections.

“Only last month, the state unit has got its new chief, Ashok Choudhary, who is busy galvanising and pepping up the morale of the party workers. Choudhary is organising meetings and rallies to give a new lease of life to the otherwise moribund organisational structure. At this juncture, going to a bypoll would have an adverse impact on the party,” he added.

However, senior Congress leaders said the final call on the issue would be taken by the party high command.

“We are consulting our senior leaders, including CLP leader Sadanand Singh, former state presidents, former MLAs and leaders of Chhapra and Maharajganj,” state Congress spokesman Premchandra Mishra said.

A decision might be taken on May 9 when several leaders, including Shakeel Ahmad, Sadanand Singh and state Congress in-charge Gulchain Singh Charak, would meet in Purnea for a rally.

Sadanand Singh said: “I don’t have much knowledge about the issue. All I can say is that discussions are on within the party.”