The Grand Alliance partners have decided to contest the upcoming Bihar assembly elections under the leadership of former deputy chief minister of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav.
The decision was made at a marathon meeting held at the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) office in Patna on Thursday. It was attended by all six constituents of the alliance – RJD, Congress, CPI, CPM, CPI (ML) and Vikassheel Insaan Party.
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At the first meeting held in view of the Bihar assembly elections due in November, the Grand Alliance partners decided to go to the polls unitedly and formed a coordination committee, which will be led by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.
The Coordination Committee will be the supreme body, which will decide everything from Common Minimum Programme (CMP) to election manifesto and campaign strategies as well as coordination between party workers on the ground, besides planning the media and social media activities.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Bihar Congress in-charge Krishna Allavaru said that it was a unanimous decision to form the coordination committee under the leadership of Tejashwi Yadav, there is no confusion about it.
However, the alliance partners ignored questions about the CM face of the Grand Alliance.
Tejashwi Yadav said, “You should not worry about these issues. There will be many more meetings. Many other issues will be discussed. We will let you know whenever we decide about it.”
Allavaru said, “We have unity and clarity. There is no confusion. There is confusion of leadership in the NDA. Nayab Singh Saini says that Samrat Chaudhary will become the next chief minister, the Prime Minister calls Nitish Kumar ‘Laadla’ but fails to announce him as a CM candidate.”
Speaking about the issues discussed at the meeting, Tejashwi Yadav said that they deliberated on the condition of Bihar. They discussed several burning issues including the problems faced by youth, poor people, women and migration.
He said that people of Bihar are upset with the BJP-Nitish government in the state and with the NDA government in the centre.
He said, “If you have a look at the central government’s NITI Aayog report, you will find out that Bihar remains the poorest state for the past 20 years. There are over 2 crore migrant labourers registered with the ministry, while the number of non-registered migrants is around 4-5 crore. It means Bihar is No.1 in poverty, migration, and unemployment.”
“People are scared as the law and order situation is worrying. Corruption is rampant. The chief minister is unconscious, but Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, who have been visiting Bihar so often, must answer this,” he added.
