PATNA: The main opposition in Bihar the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is non-committal on the West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamta Banerjee's willingness to lead the 'INDIA' bloc.
RJD leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said on Sunday that the matter has not been discussed as yet. "There has been no talks on the matter till date," he said in response to a media query. He hastened to add that such things will be decided when senior leaders of alliance partners will sit together and discuss the issue. "I don't think there will be any objection on the names of senior leaders to run the alliance," he said.
RJD spokesperson Mritunjay Tiwari, however, admitted that Mamta Banerjee is a strong faction of the alliance and she has been fighting against BJP and communal forces. "What Mamta Banerjee is saying, the leaders of the INDIA bloc will meet and decide there is no controversy," Tiwari added.
However, he didn't forget to mention the role of the RJD chief and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad in uniting the non-BJP parties across the country.
Reacting to Mamta Banerjee's statement, Prashant Kishor, political analyst and founder of Jan Suraaj Party, said that Mamta Banerjee is a senior leader and the INDIA coalition knows who will lead them as it is the coalition's internal matter." INDIA bloc, so far, is not being led by a person or party. Congress is leading the alliance by default since it is the largest party" he added.
On the other hand, senior JD(U) leader K C Tyagi said that the regional leaders are not happy with Rahul Gandhi's leadership and there is also a dispute regarding leadership in the 'INDIA' bloc.
While responding to a question on the latest friction in the 'INDIA' bloc involving Mamta Banerjee's statement, Tyagi said, "That's why JD(U) and Nitish Kumar came out of the alliance. We knew about its future that it can't work together."
A political analyst Pramod Kumar said that RJD would not invite the ire of the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi by backing Mamta Banerjee to head the Opposition alliance at the national level in the wake of upcoming assembly elections in the state. "TMC has no support base in Bihar. In that case, RJD will suffer a lot in the assembly polls in the state due next year," he asserted.