Bihar Elections 2025: Rahul Gandhi Or Tejashwi Yadav, Who Is The Mahagathbandhan Face?
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The Congress believes that if the NDA is leaning closely on the Modi issue, even when Nitish is the face, then the opposition wants a counterweight
The Mahagathbandhan, which incorporates RJD, Congress, Left events, VIP, and others, is but to determine a CM face. (News18 Hindi)
The race for 2025 Bihar Meeting elections has formally kicked off, and the political equations are shifting quick. The NDA has made its place clear with Nitish Kumar as their chief ministerial face as soon as once more. However over within the Mahagathbandhan camp, issues are far much less settled.
On the coronary heart of the uncertainty is one massive query: who would be the face of the opposition alliance? Will it’s RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, who practically introduced the alliance to energy in 2020? Or will the Congress push for nationwide chief Rahul Gandhi to take centre stage?
The Mahagathbandhan, which incorporates RJD, Congress, Left events, VIP, and others, is break up on the difficulty. RJD, the dominant drive within the coalition, has already declared Tejashwi as its CM candidate. He too, has made no secret of his ambition. In April this yr, in the course of the large ‘Mushar-Bhuiya Maharally’ in Patna, Tejashwi publicly staked his declare to the highest job.
Tejashwi was the face of the alliance within the 2020 elections, the place RJD received 75 seats, the best for any single social gathering, and pushed the NDA to the brink. Since then, he’s continued to develop in reputation, particularly among the many youth, by relentlessly concentrating on the Nitish-Modi authorities on jobs and training. He additionally stays central to the Yadav-Muslim vote financial institution, a vital caste arithmetic in Bihar politics. A number of surveys have positioned him as probably the most most well-liked CM alternative after Nitish Kumar.
So why the controversy?
The Congress believes that if the NDA is leaning closely on the Modi issue, even when Nitish is the face, then the opposition wants a counterweight. Of their eyes, that counterweight is Rahul Gandhi.
Rahul’s visibility in Bihar has gone up sharply. He has held a number of rallies, taken half in key protests just like the 9 July Bihar Bandh towards voter checklist revisions, and even shared stage area with Tejashwi, a primary for such a high-profile agitation. Based on the Congress social gathering, Rahul isn’t just energetic, however symbolically vital. After the Bharat Jodo and Nyay Yatras, he has develop into the central determine of the nationwide opposition.
Congress insiders say they’re not projecting Rahul as a CM face, that’s off the desk. However they imagine the Mahagathbandhan ought to contest with Rahul because the broader political face of the marketing campaign. Their argument is that this could assist unify secular votes and provides the alliance a nationwide coherence in its messaging.
However the push for Rahul isn’t just about visibility. It’s additionally about leverage.
Behind the scenes, there’s pressure brewing over seat-sharing. Congress desires extra seats this time, pointing to its Lok Sabha efficiency. However Tejashwi, buoyed by his 2020 success and emboldened by RJD’s continued dominance, isn’t keen to be too beneficiant. The Congress, conscious of its weakened state in Bihar, is taking part in stress politics, demanding an even bigger position in management choices to strengthen its bargaining energy.
Figures like Kanhaiya Kumar and Pappu Yadav, each influential however polarising, have difficult the consensus round Tejashwi. Their presence alerts inside fault traces inside the broader alliance.
In June, Congress’s Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru stated the CM face can be determined by “consensus” amongst all allies. That assertion alone was sufficient to sign {that a} clear endorsement of Tejashwi is way from locked.
So now, because the Mahagathbandhan juggles seat-sharing maths, caste dynamics, and management optics, it’s clear that the alliance doesn’t have a unified face but. And with the NDA already hitting the bottom with a transparent pitch, the longer the opposition takes to settle this, the extra floor they danger shedding.
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Bihar, India, India
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