No problem with Tejashwi as CM face, says Bihar Congress chief

Akhilesh Prasad Singh said Congress had contested the last assembly elections in 2020 under the leadership of Tejashwi Prasad Yadav

Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh on Saturday hinted that his party would not have any problem in projecting Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as the chief ministerial face of Mahagathbandhan (MGB), the ruling alliance in the state.

CM Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav in Patna on Saturday. (Santosh Kumar/HT)

Talking to reporters at Sadaquat Ashram (state Congress office) on chief minister Nitish Kumar’s latest assertion that he had left everything of the ruling coalition on Yadav, Singh said Congress had contested the last assembly elections in 2020 under the leadership of Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.

“We had contested the last assembly elections projecting Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as the chief ministerial candidate when Nitish Kumar was heading the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government,” he said, adding that the CM’s statement on the deputy CM was nothing new.

Singh underlined that the CM had already declared that the next assembly elections would be fought under the leadership of Tejashwi Yadav, who will lead the alliance comprising RJD, JD-U, Congress and the Left parties.

It was for the first time that when Singh, a Rajya Sabha member, celebrated the birth anniversary of the state’s first CM in a simple way.

Singh has been celebrating Srikrishna Singh’s birth anniversary in a grand manner for the last two decades. Prior to holding the programme, Akhilesh Prasad Singh used to undertake month-long visits to all the districts to mobilise people’s support for the event.

Last year, he had organised a grand event at SK Memorial hall to pay tributes to Srikrishna Singh, in which many senior leaders, including Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, had participated.

A section of Congress leaders said Singh had apparently kept the programme low-key because of the strategic shift of the party towards playing the ‘Mandal politics’ and also because of Dussehra. “People generally avoid going far from their native places during Dussehra,” said BPCC media department in-charge, Rajesh Rathore.

A senior party legislator, however, expressed his annoyance by the way the state Congress leaders were being treated by RJD and JD-U. “Our demand for the cabinet expansion to accommodate two ministers from our party has been shrugged off by the CM and the deputy CM. Nor our party workers are being given their legitimate share in the constitution of various boards and commission,” said the MLA, adding that they were suffering in silence as they had larger objective of ousting BJP from power from the Centre.