Tejashwi Yadav managed to garner a lot of attention in this year’s Bihar elections.
Patna:
He may be at the head of an opposition front called the “Grand Alliance” which includes three major political blocs, but Tejaswi Yadav’s arsenal in this election bears no resemblance to that of his opponent Nitish Kumar.
Unlike the outgoing Chief Minister who has all the might of BJP – from the star power of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, from his cabinet to other leaders like Yogi Adityanath – Tejashwi Yadav has been a one-man show on the electoral track.
But the absence of an army of star activists and his charismatic father Lalu Yadav, jailed for corruption since January 2018, has uncovered an instinctive politician in the unspoken heir to the Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD, aged 31. years.
At public gatherings, he is often seen interacting with the crowd spontaneously, much like PM Modi. The crowd applauds when he asks “Naukari chahiye? (Do you want jobs?) ”, Then he goes on to explain how, if he is voted into office, he will sign 10 lakh government jobs at his first cabinet meeting.
He announced it in September, well before the election, but leaders of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) only now realize how well he resonated with the masses in times of economic crisis; in public, they still maintain that he will not get more votes than his disastrous result in the 2019 national elections.
Tejashwi Yadav’s main promise in these elections was 10 lakh jobs.
The more politically savvy of the two sons of the wily Lalu Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav gained public attention in 2015 when he was sworn in as an MP for Nitish Kumar after the RJD and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) buried (briefly) years of enmity and have teamed up to stop the BJP juggernaut in national elections.
However, as Nitish Kumar abandoned the revolutionary coalition in 2017 over allegations of corruption against the Yadavs, especially Tejashwi, and reverted to his former ally the BJP, the JDU leader found himself falling from No.2 from the state to the opposition bench. overnight.
He took over the reins of the RJD next year after Lalu Yadav’s arrest in a years-old corruption scandal. With his harmonious repartee, junior Yadav seemed to be hitting well above his weight while his older brother Tej Pratap made national news for his party costumes and a feud with his wife.
However, despite catchy sound bites and adulation from television pundits, Tejashwi Yadav, who led the opposition campaign in the 2019 general elections in Bihar, collapsed miserably, failing to win the one of the 40 state seats in Lok Sabha.
He disappeared for more than a month and resurfaced in late June, explaining his disappearance under treatment for a leg injury. Since then, junior Yadav has slowly put pressure on “Chacha” (uncle) Nitish Kumar.
Tejashwi Yadav always drew large crowds at his rallies this time around.
In these elections, those close to Tejashwi Yadav say he personally oversaw every detail. His decision to let go of allies Jitan Manjhi, Upendra Kushwaha and Mukesh Mallah was a calculated move after realizing their votes were not benefiting the RJD-led front and if they split, they would eat away at the traditional electoral base of the RJD. National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Based on surveys and comments, he has allied himself with left-wing parties, which can help his candidates in central Bihar and parts of the north. Although an alliance with Congress was fraught with problems, it went ahead and conceded 70 seats, apparently after an intervention by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
He also dropped photos of his parents – mired in corruption scandals – on RJD posters. A top BJP leader admitted that they now have to speak for 10 to 15 minutes to remind voters of Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi’s reign as many of them, especially young people, barely remember those days. Even Chief Minister Nitish Kumar only recently began to use the term “Jungle Raj” to refer to this era.
Confident in his wit and oratory, Tejashwi Yadav challenges 69-year-old Nitish Kumar to open up debates all the time and has clever responses to every attack on him – from his ninth grade upbringing to the debacle of 2019.
Tejashwi Yadav organized up to 12 short rallies in a single day among these constituents.
Seen as inexperienced and immature, he asks why Nitish Kumar made him his deputy during their partnership in 2015. And on the corruption charges against his parents, he says: “Please report any irregularities in my services while I was in Nitish ji’s cabinet. “
“Nitish Kumar is mentally and physically tired,” he continues to repeat in rallies and in the media. It is a search that the chief minister has had to answer often.
On the thorny issues of setting up infected strongmen like Anant Singh and handing tickets to candidates accused of crimes like rape, he says, await the court verdict and turns away to answer questions about these leaders who are arguing under the banner of Nitish Kumar.
In a state where everything is decided by caste and the voting patterns are institutionalized enough to deserve their own psephological terms like the MY (Muslim-Yadav) factor, these elections will test how well Tejashwi Yadav can convert his affinity with the crowd into votes. and if his poll speech on job creation and economic recovery resonates with voters.
But whatever the outcome, even his worst critics privately admit that with his tireless campaign, Tejaswi Yadav went from nowhere until 2015, somewhere in 2019 to all over 2020. He is here to stay in Bihar politics. .
