Bihar assembly election: Out of Lalu Yadav's shadow, Tejashwi pins poll hope on 'MY BAAP'

PATNA: In 2020, RJD and its mahagathbandhan (MGB) partners had come within sniffing distance of forming Bihar’s next govt. The difference in terms of seats with NDA was 12, but the gap in votes polled was just 11,150.

Five years later, as Bihar heads into another high-wattage assembly election, Nitish Kumar remains the man to beat and Tejashwi Yadav the main challenger. But the Tejashwi of 2025 is a different proposition. The five years since 2020 have seen RJD leader Lalu Prasad ’s younger son become much more of his own man, who isn’t banking just on his father’s political ballast or the success of his ‘MY’ (Muslim, Yadav) formula. Tejaswhi is attempting a bigger coalition of communities with his ‘MY BAAP’ slogan, adding to Muslims and Yadavs, bahujans (SCs and STs ), aghda’ (forward castes), aadhi abadi (half the population, i.e. women) and the poor.

Banking on his youthful image and promise to provide permanent employment, Tejashwi has dominated the opposition space, prompting NDA to build its poll campaign around the RJD scion’s promises like providing govt jobs, crediting Rs 2,500 every month to bank accounts of women, providing 200 units of free power, hiking social security pension from Rs 400 to Rs 1,500, implementing a domicile policy and forming a youth commission. All of these have now also found their way into the NDA pitch to voters. Tejashwi has lost no opportunity to mock NDA over this.

At a rally in Ara during which he shared the stage with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Tejaswhi called the Nitish regime “a copycat govt”. “Isn’t it copying me? Tejashwi is ahead, govt is behind,” he said. Tejashwi also projected himself as the CM face at the same rally, asking the crowd, “Do you want a duplicate CM or an original CM?” He doubled down on this later, saying in interviews that the RJD-led alliance will not contest the polls without projecting a CM face.

“Tejashwi has gone beyond his father’s M-Y equation and is looking at social realities from a fresh perspective, that of a young mind. He is taking independent decisions and asserting himself as not only leader of RJD but the INDIA bloc as well,” says political expert B N Prasad from A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies, pointing out that Tejaswhi, by talking education and employment, has got the attention of the youth.

Besides, the political ammunition that NDA gets when Lalu is the RJD face — like references to crime and corruption when he was CM — doesn’t apply to Tejashwi. “Lalu carries the weight of history, Tejashwi doesn’t,” is how BN Prasad puts it.

As a result, while Lalu, the RJD national president, remains NDA’s prime target at poll rallies, the ruling coalition has refrained from direct attacks on Tejashwi, especially given his perceived popularity.

Wiser after previous defeats, Tejashwi has run a focused but careful campaign, staying away from making any comment that may annoy any section of the coalition he is attempting to build while working in close coordination with INDIA partners. Tejashwi lent his full support to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Voter Adhikar Yatra, which drew big crowds in the rural belts in the backdrop of Election Commission ’s controversial special intensive revision (SIR) of the Bihar electoral rolls.