The grand alliance in Bihar has finally declared RJD leader and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav as its chief ministerial face, while Mukesh Sahni has been named as the deputy chief ministerial face for the elections starting on November 6.
While supporting Tejashwi’s candidature for the top post in the state, India Alliance leaders questioned the NDA alliance for not accepting incumbent Nitish Kumar as its leader.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Verma said, “The NDA has not announced any name yet. They are saying that the MLAs will decide who will be their leader. So, tell me who is late? This is Bihar which is 20 years behind on the path of development. The strategy has been decided on all the seats. There is no confusion from our side.”
Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot, who announced Tejashwi Yadav and Mukesh Sahni, also questioned the BJP on its chief ministerial candidate.
Gehlot said, “We want to ask Amit Shah ji and his party president, who is the chief ministerial face of your alliance? This is our demand because we saw that the elections (in Maharashtra) were fought under the leadership of the then chief minister Eknath Shinde, but later we came to know that someone else was chosen as the chief minister.”
Meanwhile, ahead of today’s press conference, all the alliance partners appeared united despite reports of confusion within their respective parties.
CPI (ML) Liberation leader Dipankar Bhattacharya said, “In a big state like Bihar, the deputy chief ministerial face has been declared as per the need. We thought that this time we will contest on more seats, but this time the alliance has become bigger. Hence, we are contesting on less seats, i.e. 20 seats. But we will contest the elections unitedly.”
Tejashwi Yadav will now showcase his popularity against Nitish Kumar, he knows he has a big challenge in front of him, but he is confident of leading the alliance to victory on November 14.
He said, “All the leaders of the grand alliance have expressed their trust in me and I will live up to that trust. Together we will uproot the corrupt ‘double engine’ government. We have also held press conferences together, but injustice is being done to Nitish Kumar ji in the NDA. He has not even been declared the face of the Chief Minister.”
He said, “The truth is that BJP will not make Nitish Kumar the Chief Minister. Amit Shah has already confirmed that the number of MLAs will decide the Chief Minister. The question is that every time the face of the Chief Minister has been declared, why is such a statement being made this time.”
RJD national spokesperson Naval Kishore said, “Everyone in the grand alliance knew this. Now Bihar knows that Tejashwi Yadav is the future of Bihar. It is not just a matter of changing the government, but also changing the future of Bihar. Tejashwi Yadav has worked and fulfilled the promises made earlier. The people of Bihar have accepted him and they will give him a chance.”
The first phase of Bihar elections will be held on November 6, followed by the second phase of voting on November 12 and counting of votes on November 14.