Arvind Choudhary. Telegraph picture

Patna, Nov. 25: Nitish Kumar took Congress and its youth icon Rahul Gandhi by storm as neither his party nor his more than 100 youth candidates could make it to the Assembly this time.

Though Rahul, failed to retain the nine seats, which the Congress had won in the 2005 Assembly elections despite his 17 election meetings this year, the youth candidates of the party were not ready to buy the argument that Rahul factor did not work in Bihar.

Instead, they held the party’s organisational structure, which was moribund for years, infighting and Nitish’s wave responsible for the rout.

One such youth candidate Arvind Choudhary, considered to be a close aide of Rahul, who contested from the Hayaghat constituency in Darbhanga district said that Rahul’s mission has been successful.

“Rahul’s mission was to take the party’s symbol and message to every nook and corner of the state. He has been successful in reviving the party and pumped enthusiasm amongst its workers and leaders and made it a party to be reckoned with,” Choudhary said.

He added: “The party lacked the cadre desperately at local level. We have not been able to convince the people that Congress will not align with the RJD and people also voted for NDA out of apprehension that if they voted for the Congress, RJD might form the government.

Sanjeev, another Congress candidate, who contested from Bikram, held Nitish’s under current responsible for the party’s debacle.

“Nitish did good work and people voted for the NDA. The entire fight was confined between two parties, RJD and NDA. Rahul Gandhi’s efforts enthused life into the moribund organisation structure. It was because of Rahul the party fared well and had increased its vote share despite Nitish’s wave,” he told The Telegraph.

However, Bhavna Jha, party nominee from Benipatti, said: “I am a first timer. I can’t tell much about it. But certainly the elections were a tsunami that swept the state. Though infighting did have its impact on the result but party’s future is bright and we will now prepare for the Lok Sabha election where we will prove our might.”

Party’s one of the top state leaders said on condition of anonymity that only one youth candidate Amit Kumar Tunna from Righa constituency was actually in the poll fray as he came second securing more than 26,000 votes. Rest of the candidates were not even in the reckoning.