New Delhi: The Opposition bloc INDIA launched its campaign for the coming Lok Sabha polls from Patna on Sunday and vowed to defeat the BJP in two big states Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which together send 120 seats to the 543-member lower house of Parliament.
INDIA alliance leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge from Congress, Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav from RJD, Akhilesh Yadav from SP, Sitaram Yechury from CPI-M, D Raja from CPI and Dipankar Bhattacharya from CPI-ML held hands to stage a show of strength at the iconic Gandhi Maidan in Patna and flagged the bloc’s social justice agenda to defeat the BJP’s allegedly divisive and pro-rich policies.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who took a break from his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra to attend the important alliance event highlighted how Bihar was the political nerve center of the country. Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav stressed the need to focus on the 120 seats in UP and Bihar while RJD founder Lalu Prasad made an emotional pitch and urged his supporters to capture Delhi.
“Change in the country begins from Bihar. The BJP only works for a few big corporations and ignores the poor,” Rahul Gandhi said while addressing the rally.
“We must defeat the BJP in 120 seats and save the country and the Constitution,” said Akhilesh Yadav.
“Together we will throw the BJP out. Start preparing for the polls, mobilize the support of the most backwards. We have to capture Delhi,” said Lalu Prasad.
Almost all the alliance leaders who addressed the rally played up on the caste equations that favour the bloc in UP and Bihar but also stressed on the need to provide jobs to the youth and security for women.
The event hosted by RJD was successful if the massive crowd of around 10 lakh people at the rally venue was any indicator and show of unity by the alliance leaders presented great optics. However, challenges remain for the opposition bloc on the ground.
A seat-sharing pact has been finalized between the Congress and the SP in UP, which sends the largest 80 seats to the Lok Sabha but a similar agreement in Bihar is still not final. The situation is the same in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
Further, the alliance partners have been facing threats from the central probe agencies like the CBI, Income Tax department and the ED besides infighting in the state units.
Both RJD founder Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav have been on the radar of the central agencies in the past and continue to face that threat. Rahul Gandhi has been questioned by the ED in the alleged National Herald newspaper case in the past and recently, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav too was summoned in an old mining case by the ED.
“We are not afraid of anything. The BJP tries to topple elected governments and targets the opposition parties with false corruption cases. They can buy the MLAs but not the voters. This is an ideological fight,” said Tejashwi Yadav.
“We are thankful to our allies. The Congress and the Left parties stood by us through difficult times. Rahul Gandhi was issued summons and now Akhilesh Yadav is being targeted. But we will not back off and continue to fight for the rights of the people,” said Tejashwi.
The former Bihar deputy chief minister said that during the short stint of 17 months that he was in power, the JD-U-RJD-Congress-Left coalition gave 3 lakh government jobs to the youth, something that had not happened in the state in the past 17 years, a reference to the period when chief minister Nitish Kumar ruled with the support of the BJP.
“You gave 39/40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar to the NDA in 2019. This time, ask them what have they done for you,” Tejashwi reminded the voters.
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