Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 22: As tensions simmered within the Mahagathbandhan over the failure to arrive at a formal seat-sharing pact for the Bihar Assembly elections, senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot met the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday apparently with the mandate to defuse tensions with the ally, which has plunged the INDIA bloc into turmoil.
Speaking to the media after the crucial meeting, Mr Gehlot stressed that it was “extremely important” for Congress to win the polls in Bihar after having been drubbed in a crucial state like Maharashtra. “It is extremely important for us to win the polls. More so after the alliance of which Congress was a part lost Maharashtra. The Bihar polls will set the tone for national politics. It is essential that the NDA, which has caused divisions in society and messed up the economy, gets a setback. The people of Bihar are wise enough to realise this,” Gehlot said.
The opposition alliance “Mahagathbandhan” has fielded 253 candidates for the 243-member state Assembly, ten more than necessary. Smaller allies are pointing fingers at both the RJD and the Congress for taking the negotiations down to the wire, leaving little elbow room for others.
The tensions within the alliance further escalated on Monday when its key constituent, RJD, released its list of 143 candidates, setting the stage for direct fights with Congress in at least five seats. The contest in these seats, termed by both Congress and RJD as “friendly fights” are expected to weaken chances of the grand alliance over the ruling NDA. The Congress candidates are also up against the CPI, another alliance partner, in three other seats.
Even as Gehlot earlier claimed that “a friendly fight in five or ten seats was no big deal,” after meeting the RJD supremo, he said, “we hope things will be ironed out by the last date for withdrawal of nomination papers tomorrow.” However, five of these seats fall in the first phase, for which the deadline for withdrawal ended on Monday.
Mr Gehlot, however, evaded a direct reply when asked whether the Congress was ready to declare the RJD supremo’s son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav as the Chief Ministerial candidate. “Why do you want me to make such an announcement. You have seen the chemistry between Rahul and Tejashwi during the Voter Adhikar Yatra two months ago when the two leaders travelled across the state. They will take an appropriate decision at an appropriate time,” Mr Gehlot said.
Gehlot also slammed the media for its alleged biased reporting, claiming that the turmoil within the NDA alliance has been deliberately ignored. “The turmoil in the NDA is, in fact, greater than it is in our camp. But the media does not highlight that because of bias in favour of the ruling coalition,” he said.
The former Rajasthan chief minister, accompanied by Krishna Allavaru, the AICC Bihar in-charge, said a joint press conference of the Mahagathbandhan alliance partners would be held on Thursday. The 243-member Bihar Assembly will go to polls in two phases on November 6 and 11, with results set to be announced on November 14.
Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Chirag Paswan while claiming total cohesion in the NDA said the alliance was moving ahead with the vision of rising above caste, creed, and religion, and ensuring employment for every youth of Bihar and recalled attempts aimed at breaking his spirit.
The Union Minister also accused the Mahagathbandhan of dividing Biharis on “communal and ethnic lines” ahead of the polls on November 6 and November 11. “What is their MY equation? M is dividing Biharis along communal lines. Y is dividing Biharis along ethnic lines. Similarly, we also talk about the MY equation, but our M includes women representing not only the nation but also the world. Similarly, Y represents not only the youth of the nation but also the world,” Chirag Paswan claimed in a public rally.
The BJP accused the RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav of attempting to fool the people of Bihar by making unrealistic poll promises and also targeted Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party, exhorting people to give their mandate to the “tried and tested” leadership of NDA instead of falling for Mahagathbandhan’s ploy or “any new experimental politics.”
BJP national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi termed Yadav’s poll promises a “cruel joke” as he raised questions on the RJD leader’s “intentions” behind making such “lofty promises,” which would require funds way higher than the current budget of the Bihar government.
“He has promised that he will provide government jobs to one member of every family. As per current projections, Bihar’s population is about 13.5 crore… The number of families whose one member is to be given a government job (as promised by Mr Yadav) would come around to 2.90 crore. Their salary will be in the range of ₹30,000 to ₹2 lakh.
“If their estimated average salary comes around ₹75,000, the expenditure on this head would come around Rs 29 lakh crore, while Bihar’s current budget is around ₹3,17,000 crore,” he told a press conference at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi.
Despite the top NDA leaders talk about the Mahagathbandhan partners encouraging dynasty politics, most major political parties in Bihar continue to hand out tickets to kith and kin of those holding sway over their parties or alliances. Across different political parties, the sons, daughters, wives, daughter-in-laws, son-in-laws and nephews of politicians are in the fray.
