New Delhi: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav’s latest assertion that “unlike the BJP”, the opposition alliance in Bihar will enter the upcoming assembly polls with a clear chief ministerial face has run into a Congress wall.
On Tuesday, the Congress leadership again sidestepped questions on the issue, saying only that alliance partners would “sit together and take a call” on the CM candidate “when the time comes”.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru’s evasive response underscored the party’s apparent reluctance to go into the elections with Tejashwi as the projected face of the INDIA alliance.
“When the time comes, all parties in the coalition will together take a decision (on the CM face). Instead of spending time thinking about the Mahagathbandhan, I request the media to think more about the people of Bihar, their issues, and raise issues that matter to the people of India such as employment, crime, paper leaks, liquor mafia,” Allavaru said to the media.
While the Congress’s refusal to spell out what seems an obvious political choice may appear perplexing, party insiders involved in the Bihar campaign insist it is a calculated move.
“There is a feeling that announcing Tejashwi as the face will lead to non-Yadav and non-dominant castes consolidating against us. This has happened many times in the past. The sense in the party is that, rather than announcing the obvious, we stand to gain more by not alienating any section of the electorate. But the RJD is not giving up that easily,” a senior Congress leader told ThePrint.
Tejashwi has kept up the pressure. Speaking to a television channel last week, he said: “Wait for some time. How does a delay of five to 10 days matter? It will happen after seat-sharing. Will we contest without a (CM) face? We will contest with a face. Are we the BJP that we will contest without a CM face?”
The apparent standoff between the two allies comes at a time when they are locked in tense seat-sharing talks.
Incidentally, even as his party’s central leadership remains guarded, former Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh, considered close to Tejashwi and his father former CM Lalu Prasad, is also openly batting for Tejashwi as the CM face.
“There is no other option. Tejashwi Yadav will be the CM face. He is the chairperson of the Mahagathbandhan’s coordination committee and the Leader of the Opposition in Bihar. Even in the 2020 election, he was the CM face,” Singh, who was replaced with Rakesh Kumar as chief of the Congress in Bihar this March, said to reporters.
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RJD’s struggle
Since losing power in 2005 after 15 years at the helm in Bihar, the RJD has had only two brief stints in office in coalition with the JD(U). The party has struggled to return to power on its own, largely because a sizable chunk of non-Yadav backward castes deserted it.
Till date, it is common to come across people belonging to forward castes as well as non-Yadav backwards grumbling about the days of “jungle raj” in Bihar, a term laced with political connotations that is used to refer to the spike in crime when the RJD governed the state between 1990 and 2005.
“It is a situation where the RJD, more than fighting the BJP and JD(U), is fighting anti-incumbency despite sitting in the opposition for so many years. The Yadav and Muslim vote banks remain firmly with the RJD. A CSDS (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies) survey during the 2020 polls found that 75 percent of Yadavs and Muslims supported the opposition alliance. But the party’s difficulty in broadening its base continues,” the Congress leader mentioned earlier said.
The CPI(ML) Liberation, a key constituent of the INDIA alliance, has also suggested it favours going into the polls without projecting a CM face. However, unlike the Congress, it has said Tejashwi is the natural choice for the post if the opposition forms a government in Bihar.
“We have a parliamentary system of government. The declaration of a face goes more with the presidential form like in the United States. Traditionally, this was not the case in India. Now is the time to focus on winning the election,” CPI(ML) Liberation leader Dipankar Bhattacharya told reporters in Bihar.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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