JOIN US Former chief minister of Bihar Rabri Devi, created a storm in the political corridors and stunned the alliance partners of the ruling Grand Alliance here on Thursday when she supported the RJD leaders who have been advocating that Tejaswi Yadav be elevated as the state’s chief minister.
Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is the single largest party in the 243-member Assembly with 80 MLAs. However, Nitish Kumar, the Janata Dal (United) president, was sworn in as the chief minister in November 2015 despite his party winning only 71 seats. This was done as the three alliance partners – the Congress, RJD and the JD(U) – had projected Nitish as the chief ministerial candidate during the 2015 Assembly polls, which was touted as a battle of supremacy between Nitish and Narendra Modi.
However, of late, with reports pouring in about Nitish’s growing proximity with the BJP, a section of RJD leaders have started strongly demanding that Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, the youngest son of Lalu-Rabri, be elevated as Bihar Chief Minister.
“This is not only my desire or the demand of the RJD leaders to make Tejaswi as the chief minister. Yeh toh janata ka demand hai. (This is public demand),” said Rabri on the premises of the state’s legislature. She is a member of the Legislative Council.
However, the JD(U) and the Congress remained guarded in their reaction, even though Lalu is seen getting closer to the Congress after Priyanka Gandhi last week specially requested the RJD chief to campaign for the SP-Cong alliance in Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli.
“The public had chosen Nitish Kumar as the chief minister in 2015. And he will continue to be so,” said JD(U) spokesperson Shyam Razak.
The Congress, which has 28 MLAs in the Assembly, was more cautious while responding to her desire. Rabri Devi’s views are internal matter of the RJD. We would not like to comment on such issues at this juncture,” said Congress.