Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav drew praise from Opposition leaders for his extensive campaigning during the Bihar assembly elections, results for which were declared late on Tuesday.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said the way Yadav fought the elections will inspire the young generation. “Tejashwi put up a gritty fight. What I saw in the entire campaign was that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself took a lot of interest in the election,” he said.
“On the one side there was a young, inexperienced person like Tejashwi, and on the other side there was a person who was chief minister of Gujarat for several years and is now the prime minister for the second term. And then there was Nitish Kumar, who has also been the chief minister for several years. The way Tejashwi fought elections will offer inspiration to many youngsters,” he said.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief MK Stalin, too, lauded the 31-year-old leader, saying: “The remarkable performance of RJD to emerge as the single-largest party in Bihar inspires confidence in our democracy. I wholeheartedly congratulate Tejashwi for leading the RJD. I wish him and RJD a bright future.”
Both the NCP and the DMK are old allies of the Congress, which fought the Bihar elections as part of the RJD-led grand alliance or ‘mahagathbandhan’.
A poor show by the Congress impacted the overall performance of the ‘mahagathbandhan’ and prevented it from ousting the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) from power in Bihar.
{{/usCountry}}A poor show by the Congress impacted the overall performance of the ‘mahagathbandhan’ and prevented it from ousting the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) from power in Bihar.
{{/usCountry}}The Congress won 19 of the 70 seats contested by it, while the RJD fought 144 seats and won 75. The Left parties won 16 of the 29 seats contested by them as part of the grand alliance. In the 243-member assembly, the NDA retained power by winning 125 seats.
The Shiv Sena, which is a ruling coalition partner of the NCP and Congress in Maharashtra, described Tejashwi Yadav as the “man of the match” in the Bihar assembly elections even if he could not become the chief minister.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut also told reporters that Tejashwi Yadav will play a “pivotal role” in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“Bihar elections have given a very promising face like Tejashwi. BJP leaders, including the Prime Minister, should congratulate Tejashwi for putting up a good fight. Tejashwi will play a pivotal role in the next Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
Raut also expressed doubts over the stability of the NDA government in Bihar. “The majority is very thin and anything can happen,” he said.
The Shiv Sena leader also mocked the ruling Janata Dal (United) of chief minister Nitish Kumar for finishing third in the elections. “If anyone is celebrating the win, it’s a joke. The BJP has done well, for which it had to do a lot of political strategising,” he said.
“Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party ensured the defeat of 20 JD-U candidates and Paswan is still in NDA. This is a serious issue,” added Raut.
“Nobody can vouch for the stability of the new government... I have heard that as the BJP wanted to clip Nitish Kumar’s wings, it pitted Chirag Paswan against him,” he alleged.
However, the Congress has so far remained silent on the poll outcome.
Both Tejashwi Yadav and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi are yet to comment on the poll outcome.
The Congress was hoping to benefit from the overwhelming response to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s rallies and his campaign narrative of jobs and social-economic development of Bihar rather than addressing its weaknesses.
Tejashwi Yadav had campaigned extensively across the state and even set a record of sorts by addressing 19 rallies in a day, bringing the ‘mahagathbandhan’ back in the fight after having been decimated in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.