Bihar Assembly Elections 2025 | When Tejashwi stopped Lalu from allotting party symbol to RJD candidates

Congress had objected to the unilateral declaration of candidates by its ally RJD when Mahagathbandhan was yet to finalise the seat-sharing pact

Patna: Amid high political drama within the Mahagathbandhan in the last 24 hours, and arguably for the first time when the Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav and RJD chief Lalu Prasad were not on the same page, the former asked the latter to take back the party symbol allotted to all RJD candidates on Monday night.

Lalu had allotted the party symbol to a select few candidates after returning from New Delhi following his appearance in the Rouse Avenue court in the IRCTC scam case. This included Lalu’s close aide Bhai Virendra (Maner) and a turncoat Sanjeev Kumar (Parbatta), besides several others.

As the news went viral late Monday night, the Congress strongly objected to this unilateral declaration of the RJD candidates, even when the Mahagathbandhan had not reached the seat-sharing pact.

Tejashwi, who arrived here late night from New Delhi after appearing in the IRCTC case, went straight to his parents' residence — 10, Circular Road, and persuaded the RJD chief to ask all those candidates whom he had allotted the party symbol to return it, as it was not fair to declare RJD candidates till the seat-sharing pact within the Mahagathbandhan was reached.

In the wee hours of Tuesday, RJD leaders and their supporters made a beeline for returning the party symbol at 10, Circular Road.

To browbeat Congress?

Sources in the Opposition camp said Lalu was trying to outsmart the Congress by allotting RJD symbols to his chosen candidates and thereby putting pressure on the grand old party to fall in line. This also included Kahalgaon constituency, which the Congress had won for four decades till the former Speaker and Congress patriarch Sadanand Singh was alive.

Lalu had adopted a similar tactic to browbeat the Congress during the 2024 Lok Sabha election too, when he allotted the party symbol to the RJD candidates even though negotiations with the Congress over seats were going on.

Tejashwi, who had an incomplete and unfruitful talk with the top Congress leaders in New Delhi on Monday, agreed with the Congress leadership's claim over Kahalgaon. “It was he (Tejashwi) who persuaded his father to take back the symbol allotted as it may not augur well for the Mahagathbandhan till a formal seat-sharing pact was sealed,” said a senior leader from the Opposition camp.

No repeat of 2010 blunder

Tejashwi’s concern is understandable as he does not want a repeat of the 2010 Assembly polls, where the RJD and the Congress contested separately and the NDA got a landslide, winning 206 out of the 243 seats.