RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, who is the chief ministerial candidate of the opposition Grand Alliance, is contesting from the Raghopur seat in the Bihar Assembly elections.
He is seeking re-election from the seat he won in 2015 and will be pitted against BJP’s Satish Kumar. Raghopur is considered an RJD bastion with former Chief Minister and party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav having won from the seat in 1995 and 2000. Rabri Devi won in 2005.
Satish Kumar won the seat in 2010 on a JD(U) ticket.
In an interview with PTI, Yadav said he is running an issue-based campaign and providing jobs would be his top priority. He also said if elected, his government will bring a legislation in the first assembly session to nullify the “anti-farmer” laws.
RJD’s manifesto also focused on jobs with the party promising 10 lakh jobs and giving priority to agriculture, industry and education if voted to power.
Yadav was appointed the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar in 2015 in the Nitish Kumar government. Kumar resigned as the Chief Minister in 2017 after the Central Bureau of Investigation filed corruption charges against Yadav, but later formed a government in alliance with the BJP.
Yadav appears confident of a win this time in the Assembly elections. He told PTI in the interview that the Grand Alliance will get a “thumping two-thirds majority” and said that “deposits will be forfeited of NDA candidates in maximum constituencies”.
“Come 10th November, Bihar will witness a new dawn,” he said.
Yadav has constantly attacked the Nitish Kumar government over unemployment and corruption during his campaign, and said that the Chief Minister is no longer able to manage Bihar.
A poll analyst in Patna told The New Indian Express that crowds started attending Yadav’s rallies after he made unemployment the focal issue of his campaign.
“Unemployment drew attention of mass population after the return of more than 25 lakhs of workers from across the country amid the Covid-19 induced lockdown,” Dr Archana Kumari told The New Indian Express.
(With PTI inputs)
