Patna: RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav welcomed the Congress Working Committee's (CWC) decision of authorising Congress president Rahul Gandhi to talk to friendly parties and decide state-specific alliances.

Tejashwi stressed that the first move of the Congress should be to win the confidence of parties that have broken their ties with the BJP. Tejashwi said Rahul will take an appropriate decision as far as having any pre-poll or post-poll alliance is concerned.

"Rahul Gandhi ji has proved himself in the past, as far as befriending regional parties is concerned," Tejashwi told The Telegraph. "In Haryana, Bhajan Lal's son Kuldeep Bishnoi formed his own political outfit, the Haryana Janhit Congress party, and later Rahulji merged his party. There are many such parties, like the YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh, which have either broken away from the Congress or have a Congress mindset. Rahul ji can talk to such parties to improve ties with regional parties."

At Sunday's CWC meeting, where Sonia Gandhi was present, the CWC concluded that the country was grappling with an unprecedented crisis and a coalition of like-minded parties was necessary to outshine the Narendra Modi government in 2019.

Tejashwi felt that Rahul should also work on initiating talks in those states where the Congress does not have allies and with those who are upset with the NDA. Speaking on the face of the 2019 polls, Tejashwi said no formal talks have taken place. "It's but obvious that Congress is the largest party and the leader of the party with the largest share in the alliance would be the prime ministerial face," Tejashwi said. "At present, the issue is not about who will become prime minister; that should be left to the people of India. We need to chalk out a strategy to throw the BJP out and it should not be taken as an alliance of parties but alliance of people to save the Constitution and India's democracy."

Tejashwi said the RJD felt that the alliance should be seat-wise - considering local issues and social composition - and not state-wise. He said there should be a coordination committee to tackle larger alliance issues. "Who would be a leader in 2019 was secondary; the priority was to free India from communal and fascists forces who want to divide it over cow or temple. If you ask me, people of India badly hit by the Narendra Modi government are the Opposition's face in 2019," Tejashwi said.