Grand Alliance Divided over CM Candidate Ahead of Bihar Polls

Patna: The Opposition’s Grand Alliance in Bihar is divided over its face for a Chief Ministerial candidate in the upcoming assembly elections later this year. The dilemma is to counter Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has been declared the CM candidate of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) again.

Their primary opposition, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), had declared its young leader Tejashwi Yadav as the party’s CM candidate last year. The party has been promoting Tejashwi’s candidature and projecting him as the face of the Grand Alliance against the 70-year-old Nitish. However, RJD’s allies are singing to a different tune and have publicly refused to accept the 30-year-old as their CM candidate.

The Grand Alliance comprises the RJD, Indian National Congress, Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM), Rashtriya Loktantrik Samta Party (RLSP) and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP). The NDA consists of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).  

Both the NDA and the Grand Alliance are set to begin on-ground work in preparation for the polls after Holi (colour of festival) next week. Congress leader Virender Singh Rathore, one of the All India Congress Committee secretaries and in-charge of the Bihar Congress, said that only interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi will decide the CM face of the Grand Alliance. Rathore has made it clear that the Grand Alliance has not finalised its face for a CM candidate, contrary to the RJD’s position.

Rathore’s statement has given wind to speculation of a clear division within the Grand Alliance over its CM face. On the other hand, the NDA has repeatedly declared that Nitish will be its CM candidate.

This is not the first time that parties within the Grand Alliance have differed with the RJD over its non-compromising public stand that Tejashwi will lead the alliance in the polls.

In February, leaders from the RLSP, HAM and VIP met former Union Minister and veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav twice in Delhi. It happened after Yadav put all speculation about him vying for the position, to rest. However, the leaders reportedly tried to unsuccessfully convince Yadav to agree to become the face of the Grand Alliance to rival the seasoned politician Nitish Kumar, once his friend, and now foe.

Earlier, Congress leaders and HAM chief and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi said Tejashwi was the leader of RJD, not of the Grand Alliance. In addition, Manjhi and a Congress MLA publicly questioned his ability to lead, saying he “lacked experience”.

The allies also said that the RJD failed to win even a single seat in the Lok Sabha polls in Bihar under Tejashwi’s leadership, the first time that happened since the party was formed 26 years ago.

Senior RJD leader Bhai Virendra told NewsClick that there was no confusion and that Tejashwi would be the Grand Alliance’s face as he had emerged as the contender to replace Nitish Kumar. “There are no ifs and buts; Tejashwi is giving sleepless nights to Nitish Kumar and his ally, the BJP,” he said. He also denied that there was a division over Tejashwi’s name as the Opposition’s face.

Another RJD leader said the Congress and other allies, by expressing their reservation over Tejashwi, are politicking for more seats in the assembly polls, and that the matter would be resolved in the coming days. “RJD has emerged as the single largest party in the 2015 assembly polls and is confident that it will repeat this feat this time around as well,” he said.

RJD leaders pointed to Sharad Yadav’s earlier statements about him being out of the running. “Tejashwi is the opposition leader and RJD is the largest opposition party in Bihar. I am not a face in the coming Bihar assembly polls,” Sharad Yadav had said.

Nearly five years ago, when Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) joined hands with of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD, it changed the outcome of the 2015 Assembly polls. Both RJD and JDU contested 100 seats each while leaving the remaining 40 for the Congress. The RJD won 80 seats while Nitish’s party won 70 seats with the Congress registering 27 wins as well due to the Lalu-Nitish combine.

Sharad Yadav also rejected any possibility of the formation of a third front in Bihar. “Our focus is the unity of the opposition under the Grand Alliance. If the opposition is not united, the battle will not be won. I had a long discussion with Lalu Prasad over the matter when I met him recently in a hospital in Ranchi where he is undergoing treatment. We will strengthen opposition unity,” he said.

Stressing on opposition unity, he also made it clear that the Left parties should be part of the Alliance.

Some Grand Alliance supporters agree that with polls in six months, RJD-Congress-RLSP-HAM-VIP and the Left should come together as a united force to provide an alternative to the Nitish Kumar-led NDA. “If these opposition parties joined hands, they would consolidate on a social support base comprising small communities on the ground,” said Anil Singh, a political activist.

Cricketer-turned-politician Tejashwi, the leader of the opposition in the Assembly, is widely seen as an articulate and an effective speaker, and enjoys an image of a leader who could challenge Niish Kumar.

With RJD chief Lalu Prasad still behind bars after being convicted in the fodder-scam cases, the party is being controlled by former deputy CM Tejashwi. He had launched the Berojgari Hatao Yatra (Eliminate Unemployment March) from February 23 to take the political fight of growing unemployment to the streets. It is one of the issues that attracts people, particularly youths, and his yatra is drawing huge crowds at the district level.

RJD leaders stressed that under Tejashwi’s leadership, the party has proved that it has the edge over the JD(U) in the state, despite having failed to make a mark in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as part of a grand alliance. RJD’s traditional support base among backward castes, Muslims and Dalits is still intact, they said.

According to them, the fact that the RJD won two seats in the by-polls last October was a setback for the ruling NDA, with them seeing it as a mini-referendum ahead of the polls.