Bihar polls: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav declared as CM candidate of Grand Alliance

The opposition INDIA bloc on Thursday declared RJD leader and former deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav as its chief ministerial candidate for the Bihar Assembly elections.

Announcing the decusion at a press conference, which was attended by all coalition partners, senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot asserted that the decision was backed by Rahul Gandhi and national president Mallikarjun Kharge.

Gehlot also said Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahni would be one of the deputy chief ministers if the INDIA bloc forms the government, along with "another leader from the backward classes" who would occupy the same post.

‘No rift in alliance,’ asserts Cong

Earlier, amid rumours of a rift in the alliance, senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday (October 22) asserted that there are “friendly fights”, as it happens in all states, and that the “Mahagathbandhan remains firm against the BJP and the JD(U).”

Gehlot was sent to Patna on Wednesday to meet RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi in an apparent attempt by the Congress to cajole its alliance partner.

Missing photos

Interestingly, despite the Congress's assertion of unity in the alliance, the photographs of top INDIA Bloc leaders were missing from a banner at the venue of the press conference in Patna. The banner, the image of which has gone viral on social media, carried only a large photograph of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.

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