The RJD leadership of Lalu Prasad, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav (above) and Manoj Jha have been opposing the EWS quota. (Express: Nagendra Kumar Singh)While the RJD has opposed the EWS quota Bill in Parliament, party leader Tejashwi Yadav has decided to take its demand for increasing quota cap to 90 per cent to the public by embarking on a yatra on Thursday. He would travel to Darbhanga, Supaul and Bhagalpur in the first leg of his tour, known as “berojgari hatao, aarakshan badhao yatra”.
Tejashwi, who has been trying to defend his party on its opposition to EWS quota, has demanded that the caste report be made public and quota cap be raised to 90 per cent. In a series of tweets, Tejashwi said EWS quota was the “first step towards taking away reservation”. He said he was not against reservation for “the poor among upper castes”, but that the income slab should be Rs 3 lakh per annum instead of Rs 8 lakh.
An RJD leader said, “Tejashwi is our star campaigner. We have chosen three EBC-dominated segments with sizeable Dalit population. He would address a public meeting and interact with common people in Darbhanga on the first day. He will move to Supaul on February 8 and conclude his yatra at Bhagalpur.”
Out of these three Parliamentary seats, Bhagalpur is the only one held by RJD, with Shailesh Kumar as MP. The RJD, which had garnered EBC Gangota support in 2014 against BJP’s Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, is hoping to further consolidate its EBC and OBC vote bank.
The RJD wants to raise the quota issue in Darbhanga, a BJP-held seat where Kirti Azad has turned a rebel with JD(U)’s general secretary Sanjay Jha being the likely NDA candidate this time. “This is one seat where the backward-forward binary can play out well. Grand Alliance partner Mukesh Sahni (chief of Vikasshil Insaan Party) seems to be the the front runner,” said an RJD source.
The most interesting choice is Supaul, which has a good mix of EBC, Dalits and OBCs. It is represented by Congress’s Ranjeet Ranjan. Tejashwi may well have to play down his anti-EWS pitch here, said a Congress leader, adding that the party had no problem with Tejashwi’s demand to increase the quota cap.
RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tewari said, “Our leader will start interacting with people and leave his posers on quota hike demand. We want that the caste census report be made public.”
While RJD is upbeat with Bihar Congress chief Madan Mohan Jha recently calling Tejashwi the “future of Bihar”, several Congress leaders said RJD must not overtly criticise the EWS quota.
HAM (S) leaders quit
Hindustani Awam Morcha (S) state president and former minister Brishen Patel Wednesday resigned from his post soon after the party’s national spokesperson Danish Rizwan quit, accusing Patel of swindling party’s donation fund. Patel called the charge “baseless” and asked party chief Jitan Ram Manjhi to look into the matter.
