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Though the face of the party since the 2020 Assembly polls, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has received a further elevation as he was declared the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) chief ministerial face at the RJD national executive in Patna on Saturday. Bihar goes to polls later this year.
The RJD also passed a resolution giving Tejashwi the power to “change the party name and symbol”, putting him at par with his father and RJD founder Lalu Prasad in the party hierarchy, empowering the duo to take all key party decisions.
“Tejashwi ji was instrumental in taking the party’s tally from a dismal 23 in 2010 to 81 five years later and securing 75 seats in the 2020 Assembly polls. It was due to his efforts that we emerged as the single largest party in the last two (Assembly) electrons. The national executive has only reinforced his leadership, which has energised the party even as Laluji continues to be the party’s national and ideological face,” RJD national spokesperson Subodh Kumar Mehta told The Indian Express.
The RJD’s move comes at a time when, according to RJD insiders, differences appeared between the father and son over reaching out to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar back into the Mahagathbandhan fold. While Lalu warmed up to Kumar earlier this month, saying the RJD’s “doors were open” for his return, Tejashwi termed the CM as a “tired leader” and emphasised the need for “fresh ideas and leadership”.
Signalling an end to the “differences”, Lalu then showered praises on his son at the national executive meeting. “He has led by example by taking forward the party’s goals of socialism, secularism and social justice,” the RJD founder said while lauding Tejashwi for travelling across the state to “understand the people’s pulse”.
Tejashwi also took the opportunity to signal a thaw in ties with the Congress, its INDIA bloc and Mahagathbandhan ally, as he met the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, who was in Patna. The meeting came days after Tejashwi said the INDIA bloc had come together just for the Lok Sabha polls. Gandhi too cosied up to the RJD and said the INDIA bloc would unitedly contest the Bihar Assembly polls next year.
RJD state president and former MP Jagadanand Singh was conspicuous by his absence at the Saturday meeting. In 2020, Singh pushed for making Tejashwi the party’s face but has been sulking for the past couple of months. He has claimed that the party did not “listen to his advice” in Assembly bypolls in November in which the party lost its strongholds Belaganj and Imamganj to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Tejashwi made his foray into active politics in 2013 and was first tasked with energising the youth wing of the RJD. At the time, he was seen to be under the tutelage of the RJD’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Yadav, who had told The Indian Express how Tejashwi participated in mock interviews, read socialist literature, and watched interviews of leaders such as former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and socialist stalwart Geroge Fernandes to prepare himself.
The former Deputy CM’s big moment came in 2015 after he led the JD(U)-Congress-RJD combine to 178 seats in the 243-member Assembly, with his party emerging as the single-largest with 81 seats. That the result came in the backdrop of his father’s imprisonment and failing health, made the victory even sweeter for him.
While remaining Deputy CM for 16 months, Tejashwi and his family faced CBI raids as the father-son duo faced the central agency’s heat in the IRCTC corruption case. After Nitish jumped ship to join hands with the NDA in 2017 and broke the alliance with the RJD, Tejashwi took over his party’s affairs.
It was Jagdanand Singh’s idea to use Tejashwi’s pictures with the “10 lakh jobs” slogan, replacing the worn-out messages of social justice and secularism. It propelled Tejashwi’s popularity to new heights but the Mahagathbandhan fell 12 short of a simple majority in the Assembly. While Tejashwi missed out on a return to power by a whisker, he emerged as a bigger leader in the state, second only to Nitish.
As Nitish returned to the Mahagathbandhan in 2022, Tejashwi became Deputy CM yet again and reportedly convinced the CM to create jobs. Between August 2022 and January 2024, when Nitish switched back to the NDA, the Mahagathbandhan government rolled out around 3 lakh jobs. Since Nitish’s flip, Tejashwi has put forward ideas such as a monthly pension of Rs 2,500 for the elderly, the Mai Bahan scheme, and 200 MW of free power.
