Patna: Two weeks in the past, because the Voter Adhikar Yatra was flagged off from Sasaram, Tejashwi Yadav was within the driver’s seat, actually, steering the car that, with Rahul Gandhi on board, would go on to traverse 1,300 km throughout Bihar.

By Monday, when the Yatra culminated in a rally that introduced the center of Patna to a standstill, Tejashwi had turn into kind of a sideshow, with Rahul, who introduced in his concluding speech that he would quickly drop a “hydrogen bomb” of a revelation on alleged vote theft, rising as its central face.

It was not misplaced on Tejashwi that Rahul had, throughout the Yatra, sidestepped a query on who can be the CM face of the alliance. On Monday, Tejashwi made all of it however clear that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) wouldn’t entertain any ambiguity on this entrance, just about projecting himself because the chief ministerial candidate from the dais.

“Tejashwi aagey aagey, yeh sarkar peeche peeche (Tejashwi takes the lead, this authorities merely follows),” the RJD chief stated, addressing a public gathering at Patna’s Dak Bungalow Chowk, the place police stopped the Yatra from continuing to its initially deliberate endpoint on the statue of B.R. Ambedkar close to the Patna Excessive Courtroom.

“You choose-do you need an authentic chief minister or a copycat? You need an authentic CM, proper?” he added, drawing loud cheers from the group.

Whereas the allegation of vote theft raised by the Lok Sabha Chief of the Opposition, might have been the central theme of the Yatra, which touched 110 meeting constituencies throughout 25 districts, its position in energising the Congress cadre has thrown up a contemporary problem for the Opposition alliance forward of seat-sharing talks.

In some methods, the RJD, which is the biggest celebration within the opposition alliance, may sense that the Congress might use the momentum generated by the Yatra as a leverage throughout the seat-sharing talks.

On 17 August, the day of its launch from Sitamarhi, the RJD had plastered social media with photographs of Tejashwi steering the Yatra car with the caption, “Yatra agar Yudh bhoomi ki ho toh yaad rakhna, sarthi humesha koi ahir hoga, har yug mai (If the journey is to a battlefield, keep in mind that a Yadav will all the time be the charioteer).”

On Monday, the BJP additionally took swipes at Tejashwi, saying that he needed to play second fiddle to Rahul throughout the Yatra.

“All through their yatra, Rahul Gandhi was all the time within the entrance within the automobile, and Tejashwi Yadav stood behind him. Why has Tejashwi Yadav been decreased to a quantity two participant in Bihar? Congress has no vote right here and is totally at your mercy and you’ve got turn into a quantity two participant,” Patna Sahib MP Ravi Shankar Prasad stated at a press convention in New Delhi.

The previous Union minister took repeated jabs on the RJD chief as nicely for enjoying “second fiddle” to Rahul in Bihar regardless of the Congress missing a political base within the state. Tejashwi has claims over the chief minister’s chair however has ceded the entrance seat to Rahul, he added.

In 2020, the Congress was extensively seen as a drag on the Mahagathbandhan, profitable solely 19 of the 70 seats it contested. In distinction, the RJD contested 144 seats and gained 75, whereas the Communist Celebration of India (Marxist–Leninist), or CPI(ML), put up a robust displaying, profitable 12 of the 19 seats it contested.

By the way, this time, Rahul’s shut aide Krishna Allavaru, who’s the Congress’s Bihar in-charge, will steer the seat-sharing talks on behalf of the celebration. The celebration additionally made Rajesh Kumar, a Dalit face, its Bihar president, changing Akhilesh Prasad Singh, who’s perceived to be near RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.

A senior Congress chief instructed ThePrint that whereas seat-sharing was but to be finalised, the celebration had acquired feelers from the RJD that it must put aside 15-20 seats from its pool of seats for Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insaan Celebration (VIP). “Why ought to solely us be anticipated to regulate? Let the talks start,” the chief stated.

In the meantime, the concluding day of the Yatra, additionally noticed Rahul asserting that the Congress would quickly produce contemporary proof to buttress its allegations of the Election Fee colluding with the BJP to control voter rolls.

“We had proven an atom bomb in Mahadevapura. Now, BJP individuals prepare, as a hydrogen bomb is coming. The individuals of Bihar have given a message to the entire nation that we are going to not let votes be stolen.I’m supplying you with a assure that after the hydrogen bomb, Narendra Modi ji won’t be able to indicate his face to this nation,” Rahul stated, as the group erupted in cheers.

Tejashwi, Sahani, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, CPI(ML) common secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI(M) common secretary M.A.Child, CPI’s Annie Raja, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Yusuf Pathan, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Sanjay Raut had been among the many INDIA bloc leaders who attended the general public gathering that marked the top of the Yatra.

(Edited by Tony Rai)

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