Tejashwi declares himself INDIA bloc’s Bihar CM face

PATNA: RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav unilaterally declared himself as the CM face of the opposition INDIA bloc at Ara on Saturday as the fortnight-long ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra', led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, nears its end. The yatra will conclude on Sept 1 with a march on the streets of Patna to be attended by all INDIA bloc leaders.Addressing the rally in Ara town, the last stopover of the yatra, Tejashwi questioned the Nitish Kumar govt in Bihar for "frequently copying his ideas" and described it as a "copycat govt". Ridiculing the govt for copying his ideas, he said that at present he was moving ahead while the govt was behind him. Curiously, Rahul at the yatra in Araria on Aug 25 had parried the question of who would be the INDIA bloc's CM face for Bihar."Tejashwi aage-aage, Sarkar pichhe-pichhe. Original CM chahiye ki duplicate?" (Tejashwi is moving ahead while the govt is following him from behind. Do you want a duplicate CM or the original CM?), Tejashwi asked the crowd as Rahul and other INDIA bloc leaders looked at him. When the crowd said "original CM", Tejashwi asked them to repeat it.He further said that the "copycat govt" could imitate his ideas, but it lacked vision.

Exhorting the masses to remove the 20-year-old govt to get employment and other facilities, the former Dy CM said that what he had promised about jobs, domicile, and an increase in social security pension was later copied by the state govt.Accusing the Narendra Modi govt of doing nothing for Bihar, Tejashwi likened the PM's promises to a "paper plane" that flies in the sky with the support of air, and asked people not to believe him.

"The govt can be changed in Bihar only when you protect your votes from being stolen," he said.Tejashwi's emphatic declaration got a twist when RJD chief Lalu Prasad's daughter, Rohini Acharya, who had joined the yatra in Saran — the constituency she unsuccessfully contested in the last Lok Sabha elections — was confronted with questions on why the Congress had not officially projected her brother as the alliance's CM face, while the former deputy CM had declared that Rahul would be the PM after the next parliamentary elections.

"Wedding has not taken place and you people are talking about ‘suhag raat' (wedding night)," Rohini told reporters on Saturday, adding that right now their main concern was to ensure voting rights to the people.Rahul, while addressing the people, said their campaign now appeared to be turning into a "nationwide movement". "Every important revolution has begun from Bihar, and now the issue taken up during the Voter Adhikar Yatra is fast spreading like a country-wide movement," he said.Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, who joined the yatra in Saran, expressed hope of stopping the BJP in the assembly elections in Bihar. "This is the same Bihar which once stopped the chariot of the BJP; now the people of the state will halt the BJP rath again," he said. Exhorting people to defeat the ruling regime in the upcoming elections, Akhilesh said, "We defeated the BJP in Awadh (UP), and now you have to wipe them out in Magadh (Bihar)," while lambasting the Election Commission for the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar.The former Uttar Pradesh CM also charged the Narendra Modi govt at the Centre with "intimidating the opposition" but "getting scared of US President Donald Trump" in the wake of the steep hike in tariffs imposed by the US administration. "It seems the tariffs have been slapped on the face of the BJP," he said, while promising to double the income of farmers.