As Tejashwi steps up, Lalu fades from posters & campaigns

Patna: In a calculated political move, the RJD has turned the spotlight entirely on INDIA bloc CM face Tejashwi Prasad Yadav in the polls, pushing RJD chief Lalu Prasad to the background to blunt the NDA’s ‘Jungle Raj’ jibes and recast the party’s image around its young leader.

Lalu has vanished from RJD posters which carry large size photographs of Tejashwi, projecting him as Bihar’s ‘nayak’ who promises to make “drastic” changes as soon as he takes the CM’s seat. Lalu is also missing from the campaigns, though his wife and former CM, Rabri Devi, was sighted in Raghopur.




Tejashwi’s posters carry a variety of slogans like ‘Tejashwi-2025-30’, ‘Har vada pura karenge, hamara vada hai’, ‘Tejashwi bharosa hai’, ‘2025: Bihar ladega, Bihar jitega’, ‘Tejashwi sang milkar, badlenge Bihar’ and ‘Bihar ka nayak’.

The projection of Tejashwi’s image as ‘nayak’ (hero) has attracted everyone’s attention with the opposition’s CM face promising moon to masses. He even claimed that he would not spare even his shadow if found involved in “wrong acts”.

So, is Lalu too sick to carry out the poll campaign, or has he outlived his utility? RJD sources said the move is a part of the party’s well-chalked political strategy to neutralise the negative factors associated with the main opposition party. RJD’s 15-year-old regime was widely painted by the opposition as the “Jungle Raj”, and Lalu was directly held responsible for it, analysts said. Sources added Lalu is instead active on social media platforms, targeting his rivals with his powerful and punchy one-liners.

“Lalu’s name or his photographs automatically revives the image of “Jungle Raj”, providing fodder to the NDA to target the opposition. The momentum created by Tejashwi gets punctured as Lalu appears on the RJD posters. So, the RJD leadership has cleverly planned to keep Lalu out of the poll scene or posters this time,” a RJD leader said, wishing not to be quoted.

During the 2020 assembly polls, Tejashwi had narrowly missed the opportunity to form his govt as the difference in terms of seats with NDA was 12 and the gap in votes polled was just 11,150.

Sources said Tejashwi has become alert this time and is cautious about not repeating the past mistakes. He is giving a “touch of positivity” to his poll campaigns, they said.

As part of the strategy, he has been focusing on providing jobs to every family, ending the practice of outsourcing, and regularising the services of contractual workers in the govt departments in his poll speeches, instead of getting drawn into the controversies generated by the NDA leaders.

“Just give me a chance, and I will do all in only 20 months what was not done in the past 20 years,” Tejashwi is seen repeating in every rally, without mentioning Lalu’s name.