PATNA: Setting at rest all speculations over his elevation to the post of CM, deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Wednesday asserted that he was not in any hurry to assume the post.
Tejashwi told media persons in Jehanabad, “Our main objective is to oust BJP from power in the 2024 Lok Sabha election and I am not in any haste to get the post of CM.”
“Media reports about any problem on the issue of CM are not correct. Our government is running under the leadership of chief minister Nitish Kumar and so I am not in any hurry for the CM post,” RJD defactor supremo said.
Tejashwi's remark came against the backdrop of at least two RJD MLAs claiming that the former would become CM of the state in 2023 itself.
The controversy over Tejashwi becoming CM erupted when JD (U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh aka Lalan Singh to a media query had said on Monday that the CM face would be decided at the time of the state assembly election in 2025.
His statement had created a flutter in political circles as earlier chief minister Nitish Kumar had made it clear that the grand alliance would contest the next assembly election under the leadership of Tejashwi.
Earlier, RJD MLA Vijay Kumar Mandal had asserted that Tejashwi would become chief minister of Bihar in 2023 itself. He claimed that there would be a change of guard in the state as early as next month after the Holi festival.
Later, another RJD MLA Bhai Birendra said that Tejashwi would definitely become CM and Nitish himself would pass the baton to Tejashwi. “Everything will be clear after the state assembly's budget session, which commences from February 24,” he added.
RJD leaders' statement was seen as a pressure tactic on Nitish to hand over his CM post to Tejashwi and also as a veiled message to the JD (U) supremo that their party was in no mood to wait for it any longer.
Earlier too, Tejashwi had made it clear that he was neither in a hurry, nor having the desire to become chief minister of the state when state RJD president Jagdanand Singh had claimed that Tejashwi would become chief minister of the state in 2023 itself.
Meanwhile, former JD parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha who had resigned from the party and formed his own party, Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal (RLJD) will launch his ‘Virasat Bachao Naman Yatra’ from February 28.
His yatra will start from Bhitharwa Gandhi Ashram in West Champaran district from where Mahatma Gandhi had started his ‘Satyagrah’ movement. The Yatra will conclude on March 20.
Kushwaha said that the legacy left by socialist leaders like Karpoori Thakur and Ram Manohar Lohia was in danger now and so he would meet people and would exchange opinions with them on it during his Yatra.