New Delhi: The BJP on Thursday called the opposition grand alliance in Bihar a “divided house” and asked the RJD to worry if Tejashwi Yadav, named as its “CM face” for Bihar polls, will even be able to become the leader of opposition (LoP) after the election results.
Asserting the NDA’s victory with a thumping majority in the state assembly polls, the ruling party claimed that Yadav and Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani were named as the Opposition’s chief ministerial face and deputy chief ministerial candidate respectively “out of compulsion” ahead of the elections.
The BJP also took a swipe at the Congress, alleging that the RJD showed the grand-old-party its “aukat” (position) by featuring Yadav, not Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, in the poster put up at the joint press conference in Patna where names of the Opposition’s CM and deputy CM candidates were announced on Thursday.
“It’s a divided house. That’s why they were trying to send out a message of unity at the press conference (held in Patna on Thursday),” BJP national spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam told PTI Videos here.
“You need not send out a message of unity. Such a message is automatically conveyed with your nature, body language, conduct, commitment and your conviction,” he added.
Islam said people, however, understand that it is an attempt to hide the divisions within the opposition camp.
“They announced Tejashwi Yadav’s name as the CM face out of compulsion. They also named Sahani as their deputy CM candidate out of compulsion. Those who have made these announcements today should worry if he (Yadav) will be able to become even the LoP (after the Bihar poll results),” the BJP spokesperson said.
Senior JD (U) leader K C Tyagi also took on the Opposition and said Yadav is a “defeated soldier” and his defeat is once again “certain” in the upcoming state assembly polls.
“Several elections have been fought under his leadership. He is a defeated soldier.
“And in this battle also, his defeat is certain. He has nothing new to show and do,” Tyagi told PTI Videos when asked for comment on the announcement of Yadav’s name as the Opposition’s chief ministerial face for the Bihar polls.
The opposition Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) on Thursday declared Yadav as its chief ministerial candidate and Sahani as the deputy chief ministerial candidate for the assembly polls.
Announcing this at a press conference in Patna in the presence of the leaders of all coalition partners, senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot also said that leaders from other sections of society will be made deputy chief ministers if voted to power.
He asserted that the decision was backed by Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Gandhi.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla took a swipe at the Congress over the poster at the joint press conference not featuring Rahul Gandhi.
“So, it’s not just ‘Samman chori’ (theft of honour) that the Congress is grappling with,” he said in a post on X, alleging that Yadav’s picture was featured at the joint press conference poster while Gandhi’s picture was “deleted”.
“The RJD literally showed the Congress its ‘aukaat’,” Poonawalla added.
BJP IT department head Amit Malviya said there is “intense infighting” within the Mahagathbandhan that has “completely” come out in the open.
“First, Rahul Gandhi did not consider Tejashwi as the face, and now Tejashwi has made Rahul Gandhi disappear from the poster,” the BJP leader said, adding, “This poster itself is the announcement of the Mahagathbandhan’s breakup”.
