Tejashwi Yadav, Elected RJD's Leader Of Legislature Party, Set To Become Leader Of Opposition In Bihar Assembly

Patna: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Monday elected Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as the leader of the legislature party and asserted that the mandate in the recently concluded state Assembly elections was a result of 'machinery management' and 'distribution of money' among the voters.

With Tejashwi getting elected as the legislature party leader, it is clear that he would also be the leader of Opposition in the new legislative Assembly as RJD is the largest party in the Opposition and has the required 10 per cent seats in the 243-member House, which comes to 24. The party managed to win 25 seats this time.

The decision came at a meeting called by Tejashwi at his 1, Polo Road residence to review the crushing defeat of the party in the recently concluded polls. It could win only 25 seats, against 75 it had bagged in the 2020 Assembly polls. Tejashwi's parents, RJD president Lalu Prasad and former chief minister Rabri Devi, as well as, eldest sister and Patliputra MP Misa Bharti attended it.

All the candidates of the party, including the newly-elected MLAs, and several senior leaders and office-bearers were invited to the meeting, which, apart from the results, also assessed various organisational activities.

The meeting came amid the quarrel in the family, which led to elder sister Rohini Acharya leaving her parent’s residence after alleging that she was abused and beaten with slippers by Tejashwi and his aides, Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Yadav and Rameez Khan, in the aftermath of the defeat of the party in the Assembly polls.

“All of us have elected Tejashwi ji as the leader of the legislature party,” RJD spokesperson Shakti Singh Yadav said.

“Our senior leaders, including Lalu ji, Rabri Devi, former state president Jagadanand Singh, former speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary and others, expressed their views on the polls and the mandate at the meeting because everybody was aware of the situation at the grassroots and the anger against the ruling dispensation in the state. Still the results have been such that neither the people nor the leaders have been able to digest it. However, Tejashwi stressed that the voters were free to elect others if they wanted to do so.”

The RJD spokesperson informed that all the candidates, MLAs and leaders present at the meeting expressed confidence in the leadership of Tejashwi, following which Lalu gave him a free hand to run the party.

“Lalu ji announced at the meeting that there would be no external, internal or family-related interference in Tejashwi’s work and he would take the party ahead, while facing all the challenges before it. This mandate is of ‘machinery management’ and everybody knows about it. There will be more review meetings in future. Various things related to the polls are coming to the surface now,” Shakti said.

The RJD spokesperson added that the top leadership, including Lalu felt “there has been a charisma of over 25,000 to 30,000 votes in each Assembly constituency and only those Opposition candidates, who managed to surpass it, were able to win.”

“The strike rate (of NDA) has been around 90 per cent, which is not seen in any country of the world. It is not possible for any political party in the world to have such a high strike rate. The rules of the Election Commission were blown to smithereens. Money was continuously being transferred to the bank accounts of voters while the elections were going on,” Shakti said.

Speaking further, the RJD spokesperson pointed out that the people have witnessed how the labour department was giving money to labourers during the polls. “Money was distributed by (NDA) candidates under police protection. The NDA candidates were not being welcomed by the people anywhere. We are discussing all the points. We are not the ones to be defeated,” Shakti added.

However, several RJD leaders asserted that the review meeting did not assess the defeat threadbare, but was just an attempt to cement and protect the position of Tejashwi in the face of rebellion against him in the family.

Also Read

RJD Secures Highest Vote Share Despite Landslide Seat Loss In Bihar Assembly Elections