Relief to Rahul as Modi magic fades

New Delhi: The Bihar Assembly results have brought cheer to the Congress with a nearly seven-fold jump in the party's tally in a crucial State of the Hindi heartland and along with it, catapulted its vice-president Rahul Gandhi into centre stage with growing chorus for anointing him as the president of the party.

Contrastively, the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had been the star campaigner for the Bihar elections addressing over 30 meetings, has taken a beating.

After the decisive victory of the Grand Alliance, there is a general feeling and desire among Congress workers that Rahul Gandhi should immediately take over as the party president, Congress leader C P Joshi said on Monday.

"The manner in which Rahul Gandhi has played the role of a sutradhar (stage manager) in the victory of this Grand Alliance, the party workers are enthused about it and feel he should take over as the party president," the Congress spokesperson said.

Joshi also indicated that the Congress would be part of the government formation in Bihar. "When we say we have given commitment to the people of Bihar, then it is our responsibility to implement the seven-point programme, then we'll naturally consider all these aspects. We owe to the people of Bihar," he said.

On the issue of entering into an alliance in other states, he said: "It will depend on the political challenges and organisational strength of the party in those states." The Grand Alliance of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress won a whopping 178 of the 243 seats, leaving the BJP -- which campaigned hard to oust Nitish Kumar -- and its allies with just 58 seats.