Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar recently announced that Tejashwi Yadav will lead the 2025 assembly election campaign and he will be the face of the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in Bihar during the polls that are almost three years away. This has also sparked speculation that Nitish is not going to vacate the CM’s chair for Tejashwi before 2025.
‘Why 2025? We are looking beyond it’
During the News18 BizNext programme in Patna, Tejashwi Yadav said that the mahagathbandhan will rule Bihar even after 2025.
“Why do you want to limit us till 2025? We are on the path of development and I don’t see BJP returning to power in the coming years. Seven parties are together in Bihar now, where is the scope for the BJP in Bihar? Go and ask, what are the BJP’s achievements when they were in power in Bihar? BJP has been pursuing a negative agenda, people of Bihar don’t go for the communal agenda,” said the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader.
Nitish Kumar succeeded in bringing a non-BJP government to Bihar, but observers say everything is not fine in the ruling alliance.
There is pressure from the RJD to make Tejashwi Yadav the chief minister, but Nitish doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to hand over the baton.
RJD state chief Jagdanand Singh and many others feel that Nitish Kumar must vacate the CM’s chair and focus on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
He said that VP Singh had resigned as minister and defeated Rajiv Gandhi.
For greater targets, smaller gains must be given up, he added.
‘BJP should answer whether it’s for or against prohibition’
The opposition BJP didn’t allow the House to function, said Tejashwi at the News18 BizNext programme. “When we were in opposition, we used to give the ruling party the space to carry out legislative business in the house, but BJP didn’t allow the house to run,” he said. “We used to give replies in the house with evidence when I was the leader of the opposition but BJP leaders create a ruckus without any reason. This is ultimately going to harm Bihar’s interest if the house is not allowed to function.”
On the tricky issue of prohibition, Tejashwi asked BJP leaders to openly state whether they support a liquor ban or not. “They had also taken oath in the House supporting the liquor ban. Why are they dithering?” he said. “I am sure there is no rethink on the liquor policy; there is no question of relook.”
About law and order
Law and order in Bihar is much better compared to other states, as it doesn’t even figure in the top 15 in NCRB statistics, Tejashwi said.
“Keeping in view the larger interest of the state, we must help each other create a congenial atmosphere for investment. We must not be carried away by the negative approach nor should we support it. We have Nitish Kumar as the chief minister, who is an able and experienced administrator, so there won’t be any delay at the level of policy implementation,” he said. “There won’t be any law and order situation in Bihar. If we talk about Delhi and Chennai, Bihar’s situation is much better. For instance, Gujarat has a higher number of crimes but you don’t see stories coming out from there. Gujaratis focus on positive stories. This has been happening for the last many decades, this has not harmed our party but negative publicity does a lot of damage to the interest of the state.”
‘We admit there are problems, need to sort them out’
Bihar produces the highest number of IAS and IPS officers and has no dearth of experience in handling tough situations, said Tejashwi.
“We admit that we do have a plethora of issues but we are sorting them out. Being a landlocked state, Bihar has a typical problem at hand. North Bihar is a flood-prone area. To tackle all this we need to work as a team,” he said.
Bihar’s politics seems to be agog with speculation on whether the ruling mahagathbandhan will last till 2025. As of now, CM Nitish Kumar does not appear to be in a particularly generous mood towards Tejashwi Yadav.
With the induction of RS Bhatti, who is supposed to be a no-nonsense IPS officer, as the next director general of police (DGP) of Bihar, Nitish has already expressed his desire that he will not allow law and order to deteriorate any further.
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