In Bihar on Thursday, constituents of the INDIA block formed a coordination committee led by RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav to demonstrate upon a common minimum programme for the assembly polls due later this year.
To this effect, a decision was made at the meeting of all alliance partners of the “Mahagathbandhan” in the state at the RJD office.
According to sources, the coordination committee will deliberate on all aspects in the run-up to the polls, including seat-sharing, campaign issues, and joint campaigns. That Yadav will lead the panel is significant as the RJD is said to be keen on projecting him as the CM face, while Congress leaders are being cautious as the BJP has already revived the “Lalu-Rabri jungle raj” narrative. The RJD has also conveyed to its alliance partner that it does not want a repeat of the mistakes of 2020, a likely reference to the Congress contesting 70 of the 243 seats five years ago. The Congress had the worst strike of all the Mahagathbandhan parties, winning only 19 constituencies.
For the Congress, which has been “aggressive” in its posturing in the recent past, especially with Kanhaiya’s yatra, seat sharing not coming up for discussions is likely to allow it some more time to build momentum and gain leverage for the talks.
After the meeting, Yadav told reporters, “We discussed several issues and unanimously decided to raise issues of migration and unemployment.
We need to get rid of this 20-year-old rickety government. Thanks to (Bihar CM) Nitish Kumar disrespecting the people’s mandate and his frequent flip-flops, we have not had a stable government in the state for the past 13 years.”
“Alliance partners of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ unanimously took a decision to constitute a coordination committee to formulate a joint strategy and a common minimum programme for the upcoming assembly polls. I have been chosen to head the panel,” Mr Yadav told reporters.
Asked about the chief ministerial candidate of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ for the polls, Mr Yadav said,
“There is no need to worry at all... This will be shared with you at an appropriate time.”
The former Bihar deputy chief minister claimed that there was anger and resentment among people against the NDA government in the state.He said several issues related to poverty, unemployment and migration in Bihar were discussed in Thursday’s meeting.”The government at the Centre and in Bihar have failed to address issues related to the state. In fact, Bihar has received step-motherly treatment from the BJP-led NDA government. Bihar is still number one in poverty, crime, corruption, unemployment and migration. The state’s real double engine is crime and corruption. PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah keep coming to Bihar. (CM) Nitish Kumar is completely unconscious,” Mr Yadav asserted.
Senior Congress leader and party in-charge of Bihar, Krishna Allavaru, who was also present in the meeting, said, “We will fight the elections with unity and clarity. There is confusion among the NDA partners over their CM candidate.”
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