'All allies are..': What Tejashwi Yadav told HT on INDIA bloc's ‘friendly fight’ in Bihar election
Tejashwi Yadav could become Bihar's youngest CM if the Mahagathbandhan wins. He criticised the 20-year NDA government for corruption and crime.
Amid reports of bickering in the INDIA bloc, at least 11 assembly seats are set to witness a "friendly fight" in the Bihar assembly election 2025, where Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, and CPI candidates will compete with each other.
However, Tejashwi Yadav, the coalition's chief ministerial candidate, claimed that the Opposition, which seeks to wrest power from and entrench the NDA, has moved past weeks of squabbling.
In an interview with Hindustan Times' Anirban Guha Roy, the RJD leader claimed that all the allies were united and there was no friction when asked about reports of internal conflict in the alliance.
The announcement of Tejashwi Yadav's name as the Opposition's CM face was made by Ashok Gehlot, the Congress's troubleshooter, who had flown down to diffuse tensions with allies, including the RJD, which has forced the INDIA bloc constituents into “friendly fights” in about a dozen assembly seats.
“See, friendly contests have happened in the past in many elections in Jharkhand and other states in a few seats among partners of any coalition. It happens. But we are trying to resolve certain tricky issues, and things are taking shape. All allies are united in this election. There is no friction,” Tejashwi told HT.
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For the 243 assembly seats in Bihar, the RJD has announced 143 candidates, the Congress has named 60 candidates, the CPI announced nine names, CPI(M) four, CPI(ML) Liberation named 20, and VIP announced 15 nominees.
INDIA vs INDIA 'friendly' fight:
| Constituency | Candidate 1 | Party | Candidate 2 | Party |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Narkatiaganj | Shashwat Kedar Pandey | Congress | Deepak Yadav | RJD |
| Vaishali | Sanjeev Singh | Congress | Ajay Kushwaha | RJD |
| Raja Pakar (SC) | Pratima Kumari | Congress | Mohit Paswan | CPI |
| Bachhwara | Prakash Das | Congress | Awadhesh Kumar Rai | CPI |
| Biharsharif | Umer Khan | Congress | Shiv Prasad Yadav | CPI |
| Rosera | B.K. Ravi | Congress | Lakshman Paswan | CPI |
| Lalganj | Shivani Shukla | RJD | Aditya Kumar Raja | Congress |
| Tarapur | Arun Sah | RJD | Sakaldeo Bind | VIP |
| Kahalgaon | Praveen Singh Kushwaha | Congress | Rajnish Bharti | RJD |
| Chainpur | Brij Kishore Bind | RJD | Balgovind Bind | VIP |
| Pipra | Anil Kumar | CPI(ML)L | Rajmangal Prasad | CPI(M) |
Tejashwi, who, at the age of 35, could become the youngest chief minister of the state if the Mahagathbandhan came to power, thanked his coalition partners for the trust they have reposed in him and vowed to defeat “the incompetent 20-year-old government, a so-called double engine, of which one engine is corruption and the other is crime”.
The NDA, which had been hoping that the opposition coalition would remain fractious, was perturbed. Senior BJP leader and deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary alleged that Yadav, “a proclaimed offender” (panjikrit apradhi), had been named the CM candidate under pressure from his father Lalu Prasad, the RJD president, who “tortured” alliance partners to accede to the demand.
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The allusion was to the land for jobs scam, pertaining to the period when Prasad was the railway minister in the UPA 1 government. Yadav, who was then a minor, has also been named as one of the accused in the case.
Yadav, on his part, deftly tried to fish in the NDA’s troubled waters, claiming, "Union home minister Amit Shah, by stating that legislators will decide who will be the CM after the elections, has made it clear that the BJP is unwilling to give Nitish Kumar another chance."
"The JD(U) is now controlled by a handful of leaders who are more loyal towards the BJP, and the party will be finished after the elections," he added.
