In Bihar defeat, Rahul, Tejashwi cry foul: Too little, too late?

On Thursday, after JD(U)-BJP government came to power in Bihar, Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav attacked their rivals.

Patna, July 27: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former deputy chief minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, share a lot of commonalities.

Frst and foremost is that both belong to political families and thus are a part of the political establishment of the country. On Thursday, both shared common enemies, Nitish Kumar and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) supremo on Wednesday left the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) and joined hands with the BJP to form a new government in the state.

The Grand Alliance was formed by the JD(U), the RJD and the Congress before the Bihar Assembly elections in 2015. Together they won the polls and managed to defeat the BJP in Bihar.

Since then, the Bihar Grand Alliance is being called as a template to be replicated across the country by the Opposition if they want to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

However, as the Grand Alliance formula fails in Bihar, it looks like the Opposition has to come up with something new if they want to end the victory march of the BJP.

After their ouster from the Bihar government, both Rahul and Tejashwi trained their guns on Nitish and the BJP on Thursday.

"For power, people can do anything. There is no rule or credibility. (Satta ke liye vyakti kuch bhi kar jaata hai, koi neeyam, credibility nahin hai)," Rahul said while attacking Nitish.

"Mandate was given to Nitishji for the anti-communal fight, but now he has joined hands with them for his personal politics. We were aware about the planning between the BJP and the JD(U) for the last three-four months.

For one's own interest, people can do anything. (3-4 mahine se humein pata tha ye planning chal rahi hai. Apne swaarth ke liye vyakti kuch bhi kar jata hai)," Rahul added.

Continuing with his attack against Nitish and the BJP, Tejashwi on Thursday tweeted, "We entered the government with a clean slate. We had a keen desire of writing a positive story for Bihar people, only to find opportunist rival."

Since the time Nitish resigned as the chief minister of Bihar on Wednesday evening, both Tejashwi and his father and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav have been attacking the JD(U) chief.

On Thursday, Nitish was once again sworn-in as the Bihar CM, this time with support from the BJP.

However, it is too late for both the Congress and the RJD to nurse any desire to be back in the government. Both the BJP and the JD(U) ensured that the "tainted" Yadav family--Tejashwi, Lalu and others in the family accused of corruption in several cases--stay away from ruling Bihar and quickly stitch an alliance to govern the state.

Rahul could have saved the Grand Alliance had he tried to iron out the differences between the RJD and the JD(U). Recently, when Nitish met Rahul to tell him that Tejashwi had to leave the government as charges against him were grave, Rahul simply ignored the warnings.

The Congress was well-aware about the growing bonhomie between Modi and Nitish, especially after the JD(U) chief decided to go against the Opposition and support the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) presidential candidate, Ram Nath Kovind, who is now the country's President. Still, the Congress decided not to do anything about the Bihar crisis.

OneIndia News