Tejashwi Yadav bats for Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate
Bihar assumes larger significance for Congress after it was left out of the alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has once again pitched for Rahul Gandhi as a prime ministerial candidate. Addressing a Congress rally at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on Sunday, Tejashwi said the party must lead the opposition’s efforts to dethrone the BJP from power in 2019.
“Rahul Gandhi has all the qualities required be the Prime Minister,” said Tejashwi. He also targeted the BJP-led government at the Centre for “unleashing” central investigative agencies on its political opponents.
The Congress rally by party chief Rahul Gandhi is being held at Patna’s Gandhi maidan after a gap of 28 years — the last was addressed by the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1989. The rally is significant for the Congress which had been on decline in the state since 1998 when it joined hands with Lalu Yadav -led Rashtriya Janata Dal.
The Congress is looking to contest about 12-15 seats out of 40 in the coming Lok Sabha elections. However, the RJD is looking at a larger pie. Bihar assumes larger significance for Congress after it was left out of the alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh.
The Congress had won two out of the 12 seats it had contested in 2014 Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the RJD. In assembly, it had contested 41 seats and managed to emerge victorious in 27 seats.
Tejashwi, who was the deputy CM in the ‘mahagathbandhan’ government with JD(U), had earlier also batted for Rahul Gandhi as a PM candidate.
DMK president MK Stalin had also batted for Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate in December last year. The Congress though prefers to keep the leadership issue of an anti-NDA alliance open till the 2019 elections.
Stalin had said that Rahul Gandhi has the ability to defeat the Narendra Modi government. “I appeal to the leaders of all the parties on the dais. We will strengthen the hands of Rahul Gandhi and save this nation. Welcome Rahul Gandhi, give us good governance.”