Making his mark as LoP, Tejashwi takes centre stage in Bihar politics

Tejashwi Prasad Yadav seems to have made his mark both inside and outside the Bihar Assembly.

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Tejashwi, who became the LoP in 2017 after the RJD-JD(U)’s “grand alliance” split, has come a long way as a leader since. He became the LoP again after the 2020 state Assembly polls, in which he single-handedly helmed the RJD-led alliance’s campaign, with the RJD emerging as the single largest party with 75 seats and its alliance bagging 110 seats.

Tejashwi has evolved into a more accomplished leader since the 2020 polls. He comes to the Assembly after doing his homework, preparing himself with facts, data and backgrounder on various issues. While raising them in the House, he laces his speeches with anecdotes and folk tales to make them sharper and more interesting. He no longer fights shy of Nitish and senior ministers such as Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Vijay Kumar Choudhary and Syed Shahnawaz Hussain in the Assembly.

Last Monday, in unprecedented scenes in the House, Nitish and Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha sparred over the status of probes into some law-and-order-related cases from Lakhisarai, Sinha’s constituency, which was perceived as a culmination of political posturings between the ruling alliance partners.

Just a few days before the heated exchange between the CM and the Speaker, Tejashwi had raked up the issue of alleged police high-handedness in Lakhisarai over prohibition, telling the Speaker, “Not to talk of an MLA, you, the Speaker and custodian of this House, is not being heard. A thanedar (police station in-charge) is not listening to you. What can be worse than this for democracy?” Following the CM-Speaker spat, it was RJD MLAs, who first stood by the Speaker and kept demanding an apology from the CM for having allegedly “questioned the Speaker’s authority” in the House.

During the Assembly’s ongoing budget session, Tejashwi, while participating in the motion of thanks on the Governor’s address on 2 March, began his speech with a story featuring the legendary satirist Mullah Nasruddin in his bid to make a distinction between the claims of “good governance” made in the Governor’s address and the “actual reality of missing governance”. Driving home his point, he asked, “Agar vikas hua to Bihar me itni berojgari kyon hai, agar vikas hua, NITI Aayog ki report me Bihar fisaddi kyon hai?… (If Bihar made so much progress, why is there such huge unemployment in the state; if there is development, why is Bihar ranked at the bottom among states in the NITI Aayog report?)”.

Right at the start of this session, Tejashwi, while attacking the BJP’s Bisfi MLA Hari Bhushan Thakur for his remarks calling for stripping Muslims of their voting rights, questioned Nitish’s “silence” over the row. “There is an MLA of Nitish Kumar’s BJP, who talks about taking away voting rights of Muslims. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians have equally contributed to India’s Independence, but not the RSS…This is the same Bihar where LK Advani was arrested. The sentinels of Lalu Prasad (RJD founder and Tejashwi’s father) are there to safeguard secularism. No one can take away rights of Muslims. But what surprises me is the CM’s silence. Despite his claims for having secular credentials, he (Nitish) has kept mum. He used to tell us that RSS is dangerous. Now, such things are happening right under his nose,” he said.

In his 2 March speech, Tejashwi called the BJP-JD(U) alliance “opportunist”, highlighting its “inherent contradictions”. “JD(U) national president Lalan Singh says his party’s alliance with BJP has been driven by circumstances. BJP MLA Gopal Mandal accuses a JD(U) MLA of selling liquor by using a tractor. And BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal says the government has not been able to rein in liquor mafia,” said Tejashwi, adding that he would speak everything based on facts and research.

On 9 March, outside the Assembly, the LoP castigated the government on the issue of rural unemployment. “Bihar rural development department minister Shravan Kumar said in reply to a question that during 2021-22, a total of 62.9 lakh people had demanded work under MNREGA and 61.97 lakh people got it. But when we cross-checked the data on the MNREGA website, we found that out of 94.66 lakh people seeking work, 45.67 lakh people got it and out of this number only 14,590 people got 100-day work. I called RDD secretary Arvind Kumar Choudhary to confirm if the data I saw was correct and he confirmed it…It seems if bureaucrats will some day say sky is pink, ministers would echo that too.”

In recent months, Tejashwi has also sought to play a role in larger Opposition politics at the national level. He has reached out to top leaders in the Opposition camp, including Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party president and ex-UP CM Akhilesh Yadav, and former Union minister Sharad Yadav, among others. He has also maintained that the Congress should lead the pan-national Opposition alliance.

In Bihar his party recently suffered a setback with Lalu’s conviction in the fifth fodder scam case, even as Tejashwi claimed the “people’s court” still backed the RJD. What seems to be still holding him back is his party being centred on Muslim-Yadav (MY) politics and the non-Yadav OBCs’ perceived reservation against “another spell of Yadavs’ political dominance in the state”.

RJD national spokesperson Subodh Mehta told The Indian Express: “Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has emerged as a rational leader and a pragmatic idealist. He has been doing a lot of research before delivering any speech. As for MY politics, every party has its core votes but an analysis of our ticket distribution in the 2020 polls would show how we have tried to give representation to all sections of society. The CM’s absence from the House during most of the LoP’s speeches in the current session is a good enough indication of the government with its selective data being wary of him.”