After India’s independence, Bihar emerged as a Congress stronghold under the leadership of Gandhian nationalists like Shri Krishna Sinha, the state’s first Chief Minister, and Anugrah Narayan Sinha, the first Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister. From the late 1940s until the mid-1960s, Congress ruled Bihar with a strong majority, enjoying an era of political dominance under Chief Ministers Shri Krishna Sinha, Deep Narayan Singh, Binodanand Jha, and Krishna Ballabh Sahay.
K. B. Sahay, born near Fatuha in Patna and raised in Hazaribagh, was a freedom fighter and a member of the Constituent Assembly. While serving as Revenue Minister in Shri Krishna Sinha’s cabinet, he played a pivotal role in drafting and implementing the landmark Zamindari Abolition Act, which helped in reshaping Bihar’s agrarian landscape. However, despite his contribution to land reforms, Sahay’s tenure as Chief Minister marked the beginning of Congress’s political decline in the state.
Congress Downfall In Bihar
Internal conflicts within the party grew during his leadership. The rejection of Birchandra Patel, an OBC leader, as Chief Minister in 1963 alienated a large section of backward-class voters. Although Sahay inducted OBC leaders like Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav into his cabinet, caste tensions and leadership disputes continued to deepen. The demand for 100 tickets for OBC candidates in the 1967 Assembly polls further widened the rift between upper-caste and OBC leaders within the Congress.
Matters worsened in the 1967 protests that engulfed, triggering widespread unrest. The opposition united under a common front, capitalising on growing public anger and factionalism within Congress. In the 1967 Assembly elections, Congress managed to win 128 of 318 seats, losing its majority for the first time in Bihar’s history. CM KB Sahay lost both seats he contested.
The Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP) won 68 seats, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) 26, the Communist Party of India (CPI) 24, and the Praja Socialist Party (PSP) 18, among others. The Jan Kranti Dal (JKD), on whose ticket Mahamaya Prasad Sinha had defeated KB Sahay, secured 13 seats and became Bihar’s first Non-Congress Chief Minister and formed his government.
Though Congress returned briefly under Bhola Paswan Shastri in 1968, its dominance never fully recovered. The once unchallenged party continued to shrink in influence over the decades, its presence reduced to symbolic victories.
The downfall that began under K. B. Sahay has since deepened. In the 2020 Assembly elections, Congress won just 19 seats, and in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it managed to secure only three seats in alliance with the RJD.
From being the architect of Bihar’s post-independence governance to struggling for political relevance today, the Congress story in Bihar reflects a dramatic fall from dominance to decline, a journey that began under K. B. Sahay, the Chief Minister under whom the party lost its first majority.
