INDIA bloc may go to Bihar polls without CM face as seat sharing issues continue to plague alliance
The Opposition alliance has so far failed to declare a CM candidate ahead of the Assembly Elections in Bihar. This despite the fact that the RJD, an important alliance partner of INDIA bloc has been continuously pushing for its leader Tejashwi Yadav to be declared as the CM candidate. In fact in at least 10 seats in the state, more than 1 alliance partner has put up candidates.
New Delhi: The INDIA bloc of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and the CPI(ML) is likely to face the electorate in Bihar without declaring the Chief Ministerial candidate. Though the alliance partners have claimed that the seat sharing talks are likely to be over soon, so far none of the RJD's allies are ready to declare its leader, Tejashwi Yadav as the CM face.
INDIA bloc partners put up candidates against one another
Meanwhile one must note that there are several seats where the alliance partners of the INDIA bloc are locked in contest against each other. The seats where more than 1 alliance partner of the bloc has put up candidates are Bachhwara, Vaishali, Tarapur, Gaura Bauram, Lalganj, Kahalgaon, Rajapakar, Rosera, Biharsharif and Warisaliganj.
In Bachhwara, Rajapakar, Rosera and Biharsharif, the CPI has put up candidates against Congress. While in Vaishali, Warisaliganj, Lalganj and Kahalgaon both the RJD and Congress have put up candidates. In the remaining seats of Tarapur and Gaura Bauram, the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and RJD will lock horns.
The so called "friendly fights" in these seats however have led to bad optics for the alliance. Not declaring Tejashwi as CM candidate, so near to polling has also led to perceptions that the alliance is not united. Efforts by the Opposition to project a united front ahead of the elections seems to be failing.
The RJD meanwhile has been pushing for its leader, Tejashwi Yadav to be declared as the CM face. At one point of time, Yadav himself had taunted the ruling alliance in the state by saying that Mahagathbandhan is not NDA which does not have a CM face. He said that the Mahagathbandhan will not go to polls without a CM face, but his bold declarations seem to be failing now.
However no matter what the other allies say, the Congress has so far steered clear of declaring any CM face. The closest it has come to addressing it has been saying that the issue will be addressed at an appropriate time. Voting in the politically volatile state is just 3 weeks away and this may just be the right time that the Congress declares the CM candidate of the alliance.
While some individuals from Bihar Congress have said that Tejashwi is the candidate, a collective declaration from the party and its high command is missing so far. Some others claim that there is no ambiguity over the CM face, as right at the beginning, Tejashwi was declared as the chairman of the coordination committee of the allies, and hence he is automatically bound to be the CM, in case the INDIA bloc wins the upcoming Assembly Elections.
The Congress however feels that not projecting Tejashwi as CM would help them retain votes. This is so because the party thinks that there may be voters who are averse to the RJD, but may gravitate towards them. Tejashwi Yadav is the son of former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is a deeply polarising figure in the politics of the state. His rule was synonymous with lawlessness, corruption, non-governance and bias towards the Yadav community. Declaring Tejashwi as the candidate, might bring back memories of "jungle raj" in the minds of voters of the state, the Congress feels.
More recently, a Delhi court also declared Lalu as the "fountain head of corruption" and said that his wife, Rabri Devi and son, Tejashwi were beneficiaries of the sleaze under him. These reasons may be pushing the Congress from not committing to Tejashwi's candidature as CM.