Decision on CM candidate of mahagathbandhan only after Bihar polls, says Congress leader Sachin Pilot
PATNA: Rajasthan former deputy chief minister and Congress national general secretary Sachin Pilot said on Friday that a decision about chief ministerial candidate of Opposition grand alliance in Bihar would be taken after the assembly elections due in October-November this year.
Talking to media persons, Pilot, who reached here to lend his support to Kanhaiya Kumar led ‘Palayan Roko, Naukri Do’ yatra, said that if grand alliances is voted to power, Congress high command and senior leaders of opposition alliance partners would sit together to decide the name of chief minister.
Congress leader’s statement came days after RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav claimed himself as chief minister’s face of grand alliance. RJD, a major ally of grand alliance or mahagathbandhan, wants to declare Tejashwi as CM candidate of opposition ahead of assembly elections.
Pilot, however, made it clear that alliance with RJD and Left parties would continue. “Congress will contest the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar in alliance with RJD and Left parties,” he added. Earlier, AICC In-charge for Bihar Krishna Allawaru had said that the CM’s name would be decided after the assembly polls.
Pilot also cornered Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over migration and unemployment issues, saying that he would have been happy had Nitish had sought 10-20 lakh jobs for Bihari youths in lieu of extending his party JD(U)’s support to the Narendra Modi government at the centre.
He demanded from the double engine government to stop migration from Bihar immediately and provided jobs to youths. “The people have lost their faith in the present dispensation. That is why they move from one state to another in search of jobs and this practice should stop now,” he asserted.
“It hurts me from within when I see educated youths from Bihar looking for jobs in other states. The youths have been ignored for decades by the ruling dispensation. The youths find their future in the dark in the state as nobody in the government is ready to listen to their grievances,” he added.
In response to a media query, Pilot admitted that there was no death of talent in Bihar but these talents don’t get opportunity to grow. The Congress leader also expressed his concern over paper leak in competitive examinations and said that youths have lost faith in the system.
Earlier, NSUI national In-charge Kanhaiya Kumar said that the organisation highted the issue of migration and unemployment through its state-wide yatra, which began from Mahatma Gandhi’s Bhitiharwa Ashram in West Champaran district on March 16. “Our main objective behind the yatra was to awaken the youth, who have to play a crucial role in the formation of the next government in Bihar,” he said, adding that change in the ruling dispensation appeared imminent in the assembly elections.
Later, Congress leaders took out their ‘yatra’ (foot march) from Sadaquat Ashram to gherao CM’s residence in the state capital as part of ongoing ‘Palayan Roko, Naukri Do’ campaign. The ongoing ‘yatra’ will conclude on April 14 to mark the birth anniversary of Dr. B R Ambedkar.
