A Little Bit of Lalu

People cutting across castes are rooting for two-time deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav. Will his clean image and pro-development stance help him become the CM?

- Md Asghar Khan

EVEN before Tejashwi Yadav—the chief ministerial face of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)—could brace himself for the political battle ahead of the Bihar elections scheduled at the end of this year, he had to pick up a different kind of battle—against the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Among the leaders associated with the INDIA bloc and the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance), Yadav has emerged as a prominent voice who has been actively voicing his concerns against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which seeks to include the names of eligible citizens in the voter list while removing the ineligible ones.

Yadav, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, has termed the ECI's “controversial” exercise a move that could potentially benefit the ruling BJP. While addressing the Grand Alliance workers at the Bharat Bandh rally on July 9 he said that on the directions of the Prime Minister and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the names of the poor are being removed from the voter list.

With Yadav turning the ECI’s attempt to revise the electoral rolls into an affront to Bihari pride, the controversy now appears set to become one of the biggest polarised political debates in the run-up to the Assembly polls. Will it help him have a political edge? He is, after all, as per pre-poll surveys, the most favourite candidate to be the CM.

What might actually work in his favour is that the people, especially in his constituency Raghopur, are in favour of voting for him again, not because he is the son of Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi, but because they feel his approach is pro-development. At Bajrang Chowk in Lityahi village of Raghopur, Ramasare Rai, 55, was reading aloud promises written on a poster—200 units of free electricity, reservations, monthly honorarium for women, lakhs of new jobs and freedom from migration. A smiling face of Tejashwi was embossed on the other side of the poster.