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News Topical, Digital Desk : Dipankar Bhattacharya Statement: Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Wednesday said that the chief ministerial face of the 'Grand Alliance' in the Bihar assembly elections is Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav and it does not matter if his name is 'declared or undeclared'.
‘Tejashwi will be the CM if he wins the election’
In an interview to PTI-Bhasha, he also said that there should be no confusion that if the 'mahagathbandhan' wins the elections, Tejashwi will be the chief minister. Bhattacharya, while indirectly claiming more seats for his party than last time, said that CPI (ML) Liberation is preparing on the ground level for 40-45 assembly seats this time.
Bihar assembly elections are likely to be held in October-November this year. In the last assembly elections, CPI (ML) Liberation had the best success rate among the constituents of the Mahagathbandhan. It contested 19 seats and won 12, that is, it got success in 63 percent of the seats.
RJD, the biggest component of the Mahagathbandhan, contested 144 seats and won 75 seats with a success rate of 52 percent. Congress contested 70 seats but got success on only 27 percent seats and won only 19 seats.
In Bihar, the coalition of the constituent parties of the 'India' alliance (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) is known as the Mahagathbandhan. This alliance includes the Left parties as well as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP).
When asked how many seats CPI (ML) Liberation will contest, Bhattacharya said, "There is a perception from the last assembly elections that if CPI (ML) had got more seats to contest, we would have been in power. Congress got 70 seats to contest, but it won 19. We got 19 seats and we won 12. In the Lok Sabha elections, we got three seats and we won two."
He said that in the last assembly elections, in the areas where the CPI(ML) fought strongly and won, the performance of RJD and Congress was also the best in those areas. According to him, 'Last time we fought in only 12 districts. We believe that now the CPI(ML) has a very strong presence in 24-25 districts, where our fighting will make a difference in the results. We hope that this time the CPI(ML) will get a chance to fight the elections on a large scale.'
He stressed that when the number of districts with mass base increases, the number of seats should also increase. Bhattacharya said, 'There are 243 assembly seats in Bihar and preparations are on for all the seats, but our ground level preparations are especially going on.'
When asked if he expects to get the same number of seats as Congress, he said, 'Everyone knows that Congress does not have such a strong ground position in Bihar, but Congress is a national party and the main opposition party in the country. Congress has a different identity. CPI(ML) is known for its grassroots organization in Bihar. We want that the strong points of all the parties of the Mahagathbandhan should be utilized properly.'
On the question of Tejashwi Yadav's name not being declared for the post of Chief Minister yet, Bhattacharya said, 'This is not a question for Bihar. Tejashwi Yadav was the face last time too. He has been the Deputy Chief Minister twice. He is the leader of the biggest party RJD. There is no question in the minds of the people.'
On the question of announcing the name through some people, Bhattacharya said, "We feel that first of all the Mahagathbandhan should get a decisive majority. The selection of the Chief Minister is a formality." When asked whether Tejashwi's name should be announced before the elections, he said, "He (Tejashwi) is declared for the people, there is no difference between declared and undeclared. His face is in front of the people, he is the head of the coordination committee of the Mahagathbandhan."
He also said that there is no confusion about whether Tejashwi Yadav will be the Chief Minister if the Mahagathbandhan wins the election. Bhattacharya also expressed the possibility that Nitish Kumar will be the face of the National Democratic Alliance because 'Nitish is a compulsion for the BJP.' He said, 'If Nitish was not a compulsion, he would not have been hijacked by the BJP before the Lok Sabha elections.'
What did he say about Prashant Kishor?
He claimed that Jan Suraj Party founder Prashant Kishor is working like the BJP's 'B team' and people no longer have the same enthusiasm and excitement about him as they had earlier. When asked about the caste census being conducted by the central government, the CPI(ML) chief said that the BJP was earlier against the caste census, but perhaps they announced it in view of the Bihar elections, although people know that the BJP does not do what it says.
He said that along with caste census, the reservation limit should be increased and there should be reservation in the private sector as well. On the idea of unification of left parties, Bhattacharya said that in his opinion this could be a last step, but at present it is necessary that there should be better coordination between all leftist parties.
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