A litmus test for Tejashwi Prasad Yadav

PATNA: The 2019 Lok Sabha election is going to be a litmus test of the leadership quality of Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, the 29-year-old heir apparent of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who is serving jail term in fodder scam cases.

Even if Lalu, whose bail petition will come up for hearing in the Supreme Court on March 29, is released from jail on medical grounds, the court, in all likelihood, will keep a close vigil on his activities and movement outside the confines of his home.

With an electoral career of just 4 years since he contested the 2015 assembly election for the first time under the political umbrella of Lalu and made his debut as an MLA from Raghopur, Tejashwi has the onus to lead his party and impress the voters in the absence of his maverick father. Though he must have seen his father playing on the political chessboard with other party heavyweights, the leader of opposition in Bihar assembly is a first-timer on an electoral negotiation table with political veterans from Congress, RLSP, HAM(S) and the Left combine.

RJD feels Tejashwi is capable enough to lead the party. Party’s treasurer since its inception and former MLC Kumar Rakesh Ranjan said Tejashwi has got public acceptance. “The kind of response he gets in his public meetings is proof that people have accepted Tejashwi as the leader. He also carries his senior party leaders well and his behavioural attitude is appreciated by one and all. He has stepped into Laluji’s footsteps and leading RJD in a very mature way. Though there is no match to Laluji, party workers are happy with him,” Rakesh told TOI on Friday.

RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari feels Tejashwi has already been accepted by people of Bihar. “In the absence of Laluji, Tejashwi has proved his capability to lead the party from the front. The election results in the state have established his credentials as a mass leader because RJD has won two out three assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat in the byelections held in the state since it started sitting in the opposition after Nitish joined hands with BJP in July 2017. He is young and enjoys a clean and suave public image,” Tiwari said.

But BJP has a different take and for obvious reasons. BJP state vice-president and election committee member Mithilesh Tiwari said Tejashwi would remain a tainted face for the corruption charges against his father Lalu and himself. “Tejashwi is only the face. It’s Lalu who is calling the shots from jail for all practical purposes. It’s unfortunate that a man in jail is running a party by proxy. No one can expect a clean politics from Tejashwi as he has failed so far to satisfy his critics on the corruption charges he is facing. Also, Tejashwi has no vision either for Bihar or the country. Since it’s a parliamentary election, Lalu’s son has no public credibility as he will have to carry the corruption baggage of his father,” Tiwari told TOI.

Almost similar is the view of JD(U) spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan. “Tejashwi contested the 2015 assembly election under the patronage of his father and the leadership of Nitish Kumar. Otherwise, he has no experience of electoral politics. Also, corruption charges against him will harm the Mahagathbandhan and his inexperience will cost his party and alliance dearly,” Ranjan told TOI.

But JD(U) national vice-president Prashant Kishor feels the corruption charges against Lalu will hardly be a factor in elections. In an interview recently, Kishor had said: “Most of the young voters were not even born when fodder scam rocked the country. So, it is unlikely that corruption issues against Lalu will hold much ground among the first generation voters.”

The battleground is set for the parliamentary elections from April 11 and only time will tell how Tejashwi shapes himself and emerges as a true heir apparent of his father in terms of being a mass leader!