Ahead of a meeting of constituents of the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in Bihar that he has convened in Patna on Thursday, senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on Tuesday. And the message from the meeting, sources said, was clear: let’s not repeat the “mistakes” that the alliance committed in the last Assembly elections and ensure that seat sharing is based on “ground realities”. Yadav, sources said, was keen on seat-sharing talks starting as early as possible and the arrangements being finalised well before the Assembly elections later in the year. The Bihar Assembly’s Leader of Opposition does not want the talks and candidate selection to linger on till the last minute. While sources in the Congress said both sides felt seat sharing should be based on ground realities, Yadav’s emphasis is interesting given that the RJD is of the view that it was a mistake to have given the Congress 70 seats in 2020. The Congress won just 19 of the 70 seats it contested five years ago, registering the worst strike rate among the constituents of the Mahagathbandhan. The RJD won half of the seats it contested (75 of 144), and the CPI(ML) Liberation bagged 12 of the 19 seats in which it fielded candidates. In last year’s Lok Sabha elections, the RJD won just four seats while the Congress managed to win three and the CPI(ML) Liberation two. Sources in both the Congress and the RJD insisted that there was no discussion on the nitty-gritty of seat sharing, including the formula to be adopted. Neither was there any discussion on the projection of Yadav as the chief ministerial face. “Tejashwi has convened the meeting of the alliance on Thursday. So it is clear who will lead the alliance, but there was no discussion on formally projecting him as the face,” said a Congress leader. Who will be the CM face? While the RJD is said to be keen on projecting Yadav, the former Deputy CM, the Congress leaders are being cautious as the BJP has already revived the “Lalu-Rabri jungle raj” narrative. Addressing a joint rally with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Bhagalpur on February 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too attacked the RJD, referring to it as “jungle raj waale”. Sensing the mood in the RJD camp on seat sharing, the Congress has started its ground work early, recently holding a “Palayan Roko, Naukri Do Yatra (Stop Migration, Give Jobs)” in the state and is trying hard to reach out to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Dalits. Gandhi has traveled to the state thrice in as many months and admitted on his last visit a few days ago that the party did not do what it needed to in Bihar all these years and that it was learning from its mistakes. He declared that two-thirds of the district committees, which were headed by upper castes earlier, will now be led by those from the deprived castes. The party has also replaced Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh as Bihar chief with Rajesh Kumar, a Dalit leader and Kutumba MLA. The meeting at Kharge’s residence was attended by the RJD’s Rajya Sabha MPs Manoj K Jha and Sanjay Yadav, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal, AICC Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru, Rajesh Kumar, and AICC administration in-charge Gurdeep Singh Sappal. Sources in both parties said the discussions were “generic in nature”. Yadav told reporters after the meeting that the media should not be worried about the alliance’s CM face. “I don't know why you all are worried about the CM face, we will talk among ourselves and decide. Things will become clear, you all should not worry about it,” he said. “It was a very positive discussion,” the RJD leader said. “All the alliance partners are meeting on the 17th. We are prepared (to fight the elections) … We have taken the resolve to take Bihar forward. The government has been there for 20 years in Bihar, Prime Minister Modi has been at the helm at the Centre for 11 years . amid all this, Bihar has been given step-motherly treatment. Bihar is the most economically backward, it has the lowest per capita income, the lowest farmers' income, and the highest migration. We all want to fight the elections on real issues.” Asked again about the CM face, he said, “Nitish ji has been hijacked. Amit Shah has been saying that they will fight elections under his leadership, but does not say he will become the Chief Minister.” In a post in Hindi on X after the meeting, Kharge said this time change was certain in Bihar. “Today we met the former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, and discussed the strength of the Mahagathbandhan. In the coming elections, we will give the people of Bihar a strong, positive, just and welfare option. Bihar will be freed from BJP and its opportunistic thug alliance. Youth, farmers, labourers, women, backward, extremely backward and all other sections of the society want a Mahagathbandhan government,” he said.
