In the Lok Sabha elections, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) failed to have much of an impact as it won four seats despite having the highest vote share among all the parties. Having failed to deal a blow to the ruling NDA alliance and at a time former poll strategist Prashant Kishor has announced the political debut of his outfit Jan Suraaj, RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav is all set to embark on a Bihar-wide yatra after August 15. Tejashwi has divided the yatra into several legs to sustain its momentum in the run-up to the Assembly polls next year. RJD national spokesperson Subodh Kumar Mehta told The Indian Express, “During Tejashwi ji's yatra, he will deliver into a range of issues concerning Bihar, right from the Centre denying it special category status yet again to Nitish Kumar failing to put pressure on the Centre to include the Bihar government's quota raise in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, and to deterioration of law and order in the state.” The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Bihar government's plea to stay the Patna High Court order quashing the order to raise its reservation cap from 50% to 65% in state government jobs and educational institutions. RJD sources said the main trigger for the yatra was to ensure that a new player such as Kishor did not grab any political advantage. “Going to the people is the best way to find answers and settle doubts. When Prashant Kishor launches his party in October, we will be right there amid the people, with our leader Tejashwi ji reiterating his job promise. We had seen enthusiastic crowd response over the fulfilment of his job promise during Tejashwi ji's yatra before the Lok Sabha polls," said an RJD insider. Asked why Tejashwi, the Leader of the Opposition, skipped the just-concluded Monsoon Session of the Bihar Assembly and missed a big chance to corner the government over these issues, Mehta said, “One must not read too much into Tejashwi ji's absence. That could be because of some personal reason. The Leader of the House, CM Nitish Kumar, also skips some legislative proceedings.” Mehta also played down the Kishor factor. “He (Kishor) has been in the field for close to two years. We have nothing to say about it. Rather, we will focus on our core agenda, jobs for Bihar's youth, besides taking up issues concerning the comprehensive economic growth of Bihar,” he said. Kishor, while not directly reacting to the posers by the RJD, has been regularly attacking the party during his ongoing yatra. “The man (Tejashwi) who has studied only till Class 9, is dreaming of becoming the CM while several graduate and post-graduate youths of Bihar are not getting even office attendants' jobs,” he said recently. The RJD also believes the yatra will put the ball in the NDA's court, given that neither the JD(U) nor the BJP has a record of organising yatras in Bihar. Even though the RJD won only four of Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabha seats — the INDIA bloc won nine in total — the party is upbeat about a six percentage point increase in its vote share compared to 2019. Its 22.14% vote share was the highest among all the parties, with the improvement close to the cumulative decline recorded by the BJP and the JD(U). The BJP and the JD(U), however, are not too far behind with vote shares of 20.5% and 18.52% respectively. The BJP described Tejashwi's yatra as a “self-promotion exercise”. BJP spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said, “Assembly segment-wise analysis of the Lok Sabha poll results show the NDA was ahead in 174 of the 243 Assembly seats in Bihar. Tejashwi’s RJD base is sliding. We are not alarmed by his yatra as it will be another self-promotion exercise by the young RJD leader. He should have sounded more convincing with his interventions in the Assembly, rather than hitting the road.” JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar, who is an MLC, said, “Tejashwi is desperately looking for issues to stay politically afloat. He is making noise on the quashing of the Bihar government's quota raise nowadays. We want to know why the RJD did not intervene in the Supreme Court when we challenged the Patna High Court's decision to scrap the quota raise. He should also stop taking credit for the Bihar caste survey, as it was a unanimous decision by all Bihar parties.”