PATNA: Former Bihar Congress president and Rajya Sabha member Akhilesh Prasad Singh cleared the mist over the Opposition Grand Alliance’s chief ministerial candidate in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, saying, “Who other than RJD’s Tejashwi Prasad Yadav” will be the CM face.
While speaking to media persons soon after meeting RJD supremo Lalu Prasad at the 10 Circular Road residence of Rabri Devi in the state capital late on Thursday evening, Singh stated that Tejashwi would be the CM candidate of the Opposition if the RJD-Congress-led Mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance wins the elections due in October-November this year.
Singh, who is considered close to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, confirmed that he met the RJD patriarch and inquired about his health. “We are in social-public life. So, meetings with senior politicians at short intervals are part of our day-to-day life,” he said in response to a media query after stepping out of Rabri Devi’s residence.
The former Congress president, however, expressed confidence that the Opposition Grand Alliance, a part of the INDIA bloc, would win the elections. “The wind of change is blowing across the state, and it is palpable on every face. People want to get rid of the present dispensation,” the Congress MP told the media.
Hours later, Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar, who has his roots in Bihar’s Begusarai, confirmed that Tejashwi Prasad Yadav would be the CM candidate of the Opposition INDIA bloc. “There is no confusion or doubt over Tejashwi being CM candidate of the Opposition,” he told the media.
Kumar said that it was a conspiracy of the ruling dispensation to create confusion about the CM face of the Opposition. He claimed that the BJP would remove Chief Minister Nitish Kumar from the post once they got the chance. “This is BJP’s standard template—first to take support of any regional party and then slowly swallow it,” he added.
Continuing his attack on the BJP, Kumar said that they would not make ‘Operation Sindoor’ a poll plank as they knew the people of Bihar would not vote for them on the issue, as they believed it to be a matter of the nation’s pride and honour and that no political party should politicise it.
Incidentally, both Akhilesh and Kanhaiya, who supported Tejashwi as the CM face, belong to the dominant upper caste—Bhumihar. Their statements contradict an earlier remark made by the Bihar in-charge of the party, Krishna Allavaru, who said that the CM candidate would be decided after the assembly elections when top leaders of alliance partners would sit together.
A political analyst noted that the Congress’s central leadership does not want to project Tejashwi as the CM face, fearing that the ruling dispensation would revive the ‘Jungle Raj’ narrative during the campaign, which may hurt the prospects of the Opposition alliance in the elections.