RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday set out on a solo Bihar Adhikar Yatra in an apparent show of strength to assert himself as the mascot of the Opposition Mahagathbandhan in the poll-bound state, as the Congress plays hard to get after a similar political programme by Rahul Gandhi received a massive response.
The five-day Yatra in a bus painted in the RJD’s green colour with Tejashwi’s face and the party’s election symbol “lantern” etched on it comes days after his appeal to the people to “vote in my name” in all 243 Assembly constituencies. The Yatra will conclude on September 20 after passing through 10 districts.
The Mahagathbandhan allies are said to be locked in a seat-sharing tussle, with the non-RJD constituents reluctant to declare Tejashwi as the official chief ministerial candidate.
Unlike last month’s Voter Adhikar Yatra, which turned into a Rahul show with Tejashwi relegated to a side act, the Bihar Adhikar Yatra will be all about the 35-year-old RJD scion and Lalu Prasad’s younger son.
As Tejashwi left for Jehanabad from Patna in the green bus, crowds of supporters waved RJD flags. Barring some red flags of the Left parties that are part of the Mahagathbandhan, no flag of any other alliance partner was spotted.
Officially, Tejashwi denied any leadership tussle and claimed his Yatra would cover the districts left out during the Voter Adhikar Yatra.
Tejashwi Yadav addresses a rally in Jehanabad on Tuesday. Picture courtesy: X
However, the pitch of the Bihar Adhikar Yatra, the campaign songs, social media posts and the slogans at the rollout event in Jehanabad left no one in doubt about its purpose — which is to establish Tejashwi as the challenger to the incumbent NDA government led by Nitish Kumar.
Asked about reports of rifts in the alliance over projecting him as the chief ministerial face, Tejashwi said: “There is no confusion in our alliance. The people are the owners of Bihar and they make the chief minister. Go and ask any person who they want (as chief minister) and you will get the answer.”
He said the alliance would announce the CM candidate when the time comes.
A clearer indication came in Tejashwi’s post on X. “Today, one slogan, one echo is resonating in every nook and corner of Bihar — ‘Coming, coming RJD coming; coming, coming, RJD coming,” he wrote, avoiding any reference of the Mahagathbandhan.
Dressed in a red T-shirt with the party’s “lantern” poll symbol emblazoned on it, Tejashwi addressed crowds on the way and attempted to woo the youth across caste lines. “This is not Tejashwi’s Yatra. This is a Yatra of the unemployed youths…,” he said.
Apart from Tejashwi, pictures of his parents — Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi — adorned the bus with a slogan promising “change”.
The bid to assert his leadership comes close on the heels of two key allies — the Congress and the Vikasheel Insan Party (VIP) — seeking a good share of “winnable” seats. VIP leader Mukesh Sahani has demanded 60 seats and has gone on to declare that he should get the deputy chief minister’s post if the Mahagathbandhan comes to power.
The Congress has pitched for 70 seats, the same as last time, but many of them are not the ones the party had contested earlier. The party wants more “winnable” seats. The RJD leadership has said allotting the same number of seats to the Congress is difficult because several new parties have joined the Mahagathbandhan.
To press their demand, the Congress and the other allies have been mothballing any announcement of the alliance’s official chief ministerial candidate, angering the RJD.
“The CM face is for Bihar, and so the people of Bihar will decide,” Congress’s Bihar minder Krishna Allavaru recently told reporters.