'Still dependent on Nitish': Tejashwi takes dig at BJP on 'Aatmanirbhar Bihar' campaign

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav took a dig at the ruling BJP-JDU alliance in Bihar during Saturday's meeting between JP Nadda and Nitish Kumar. He said that the BJP has talked about self-reliant Bihar but it should be self-reliant politically in the state first. In the NDA alliance, Nitish Kumar-led JDU is the senior partner.

"BJP has talked about self-reliant Bihar, I would like to advise them that they should become self-reliant first in Bihar. Still dependent on some other's (Nitish Kumar) face for 24 years," Tejashwi Yadav said on launching of BJP's 'Atmanirbhar Bihar' campaign.

Launching the poll campaign, BJP national president JP Nadda said that it will bring the state's development agenda to the mainstream and will be a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream for a self-reliant India. The BJP also launched its poll song and slogan 'Jan Jan Ki Pukar, Aatmanirbhar Bihar'. Nadda is on a two-day visit to the state and will finalise the seat-sharing deal with the NDA partners. 

Nadda meets Nitish

As massive speculations were made about the tiff between the LJP and JDU, Nadda asserted that both parties will contest the elections under the leadership of CM Nitish Kumar. He also met Kumar for more than half an hour and discussed the seat-sharing as well as the ongoing power tussle between LJP and JDU. 

Nadda was accompanied by Deputy CM and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, national general secretary and state in-charge Bhupendra Yadav and state president Sanjay Jaiswal. The JDU national president, welcomed the leaders at his official residence 1, Anney Marg with other JDU leaders Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan. 

Commenting on this meeting, Tejashwi said Nadda has played "very cleverly" by not announcing Nitish Kumar as the formal CM candidate and has only declared him as their leader of the NDA bloc. He also attacked the ruling coalition on the development front and said key indicators like unemployment shows Bihar has been backward and underperforming.

READ | BJP Launches Campaign Song 'Aatmanirbhar Bihar'; Nadda Discusses Seat-sharing With Nitish

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Bihar Elections 2020

Bihar is all set for assembly polls with the Election Commission issuing guidelines for elections amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 243-member assembly seat, NDA currently has 131, and Mahagathbandhan has 101 seats (11 seats are vacant). The Election Commission has issued directives to conduct election amid COVID, however, the dates are yet to be announced.

In the 2015 assembly polls, CM Nitish Kumar's JDU, then a part of the Mahagathbandhan won 71 seats, Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD won 80 seats, and Congress won 27 seats. The BJP which fought the elections alone after Kumar in 2013 broke the 17-year-old alliance won a mere 53 seats out of 157 contested. However, the saffron party came back to power when Kumar ditched the Mahagathbandhan and once again stitched an alliance with the BJP.

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