The RJD leader described Gandhi as the one “who has given sleepless nights to Prime Minister Narendra Modi” for undertaking the state-wide yatra. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday pitched Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate for the opposition in the 2029 Lok Sabha election. Yadav made the remarks while addressing a rally during Congress’s ongoing ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar’s Nawada along with Gandhi.
“In the upcoming assembly polls, we shall root out the NDA, which has been running a government comparable to a rickety old car (‘khatara’) for the last 20 years. And, in the next Lok Sabha polls, we shall make Rahul Gandhi the prime minister,” said Yadav, evoking cheers from the crowd.
This is the first time that an INDIA bloc leader has clearly stated a choice for the opposition’s pick as PM. The RJD leader described the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha as the one “who has given sleepless nights to Prime Minister Narendra Modi” by undertaking the statewide yatra, which began on Sunday.
The INDIA bloc, which was formed before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, did not project any leader as its PM face for that election. But since then, Rahul Gandhi, who was chosen to be the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has been setting much of the bloc’s agenda against the government.
The Rae Bareli MP’s allegations of ‘vote chori’ against the Election Commission have made headlines, bringing even fence-sitters among the opposition parties, like AAP, into the fold on the issue. Both AAP and Mamata Banerjee-led TMC took part in the INDIA bloc’s press conference against the EC.
