Tejashwi Yadav projects Rahul Gandhi as INDIA bloc’s PM face

On the third day of the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar, RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav sparked the buzz about the prime ministerial candidate of the INDIA bloc in the next Lok Sabha elections by announcing his support for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Addressing a public rally in Nawada on Tuesday, the RJD leader said that the time has come for the young generation to get a chance to run the state.

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He said that the youth of Bihar have resolved to remove Nitish Kumar-led ‘khatara’ government after the upcoming Assembly elections and “we will make Rahul Gandhi the prime minister after next Lok Sabha polls.”

Deciding the prime ministerial face has been a prickly issue for the INDIA bloc, which went into the 2024 Lok Sabha elections without projecting any face amid differences within alliance partners.

Tejashwi’s remark has come at a time when Rahul Gandhi’s performance as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and outside has won him new admirers. It is expected to set the stage for the Congress scion’s wider acceptability among the alliance partners.

Addressing the public meeting, Rahul Gandhi said: “In Bihar, a new method has been adopted to steal votes. In the name of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Rolls, right in front of your eyes and the eyes of the entire country, they are stealing your votes. We will not allow them to steal.”

He alleged that there is a partnership between the Election Commission and the BJP. They are stealing votes together.

He added: “This is your right. The Constitution has given you this right. You have fought for this, you work hard for this. But Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and the Election Commissioner are snatching it from you. And I, Tejashwi, and the other leaders standing here, want to tell them – we will not let them steal even a single vote from Bihar… not a single vote.”

CPI (ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that the Yatra has now become a massive movement. He said that in the 20 years of Nitish-BJP rule, Bihar has become a symbol of poverty, feudal oppression, unemployment, suicides under debt, and mass migration.

He said: “The growing public anger against the Nitish-BJP government will foil the SIR conspiracy through the Election Commission. The vote thieves will have to leave power. Bihar will change – and eventually, the country will change too.”