Tejashwi will lead 2025 campaign, hints Nitish

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday endorsed his deputy Tejashwi Yadav as the next leader of the ruling Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) and hinted that the younger leader will be the chief ministerial candidate in the next assembly elections, said Congressleaders from the ruling coalition after a key meeting

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday endorsed his deputy Tejashwi Yadav as the next leader of the ruling Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) and hinted that the younger leader will be the chief ministerial candidate in the next assembly elections, said Congressleaders from the ruling coalition after a key meeting.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar with deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav during an event, in Patna. (Santosh Kumar/ HT)

Bihar’s ruling alliance comprises the Janata Dal (United), RJD, Congress and four other smaller parties. Kumar’s statement came at a meeting of the alliance’s legislators, held in the legislative assembly on Tuesday after the first day of the winter session was adjourned.

“The chief minister pointed towards Tejashwi ji and said he is the leader of the future, under whose leadership the 2025 assembly polls in the state would be fought. He spelled out two targets. One, that a united opposition could defeat the Narendra Modi-led BJP in 2024 and second, bringing back the GA to power in Bihar in 2025 under Tejashwi Yadav,” said Congress MLA Ajeet Sharma.

Former state Congress chief Madan Mohan Jha, who also attended the meeting, confirmed Kumar’s comments.

This is the first time Kumar has explicitly announced his support for Yadav as a CM candidate and is a remarkable statement for someone who quit the alliance in 2017 and dropped Yadav after corruption charges surfaced against the younger leader.

On Tuesday evening, Kumar told reporters that he had been projecting Yadav for the leadership role in 2025 since the beginning of their alliance. “Ek dum karega (I am sure he will do it),” said Kumar, while holding up Yadav’s arm, when asked about his projection of Tejashwi as GA leader in 2025.

Despite several leaders projecting him as the PM candidate in the 2024 general elections, Kumar also ruled himself out of the race, said JD (U) minister Vijay Kumar Chowdhary and Congress MLA Sharma.

He also made a strong pitch for Opposition unity to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party government, said Sharma.

Speaking about Kumar’s support for Yadav, JD(U) leader and Bihar minister Vijay Kumar Chowdhary said: “There is nothing unusual in it. He had said several times that he (Yadav) is the future leader. There is no confusion in that.”

”Kumar made it clear again that he was not in the race for prime ministership. But he still feels the BJP can be defeated in 2024 if the Opposition stands united. And he will continue to work in that direction,” he added.

Yadav is the younger son of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad, who is currently recuperating at a hospital in Singapore after undergoing kidney transplant. Prasad and Kumar started their political careers together as socialist leaders in the 1970s but famously fell out in the 1990s, only to bury the hatchet before the 2015 assembly elections. Kumar deserted the Grand Alliance in 2017 but dumped the BJP in August 2022 to join hands with the RJD again.

Yadav -- who propelled the RJD to becoming the single-largest party in the 2020 assembly polls -- said the focus for now is on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “Talks on 2025 will be held later. At the moment, we all working and learning under Nitish Kumar and running the government together,” he said.

“Nitish Kumar is an experienced leader and chief minister. If he (Kumar) has taken a decision it is acceptable to all. People of Bihar had accepted Tejashwi as their leader a long time back,” said RJD spokesperson Shakti Yadav.

The BJP said there was nothing new in Kumar’s comments. “This [Yadav’s projection for CM role] was known for a long time. It was a matter of time,” said BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal. “Though it is an internal matter of GA, we want that he hands over the baton to Tejashwi sooner. Now only merger of JD (U) in RJD is left,” said BJP Rajya Sabha MP and former Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi.