Tejashwi Yadav Should Stop Being A Cry-Baby
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-11-17 19:39:06
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
By first protesting against the Bihar poll verdict and saying that the results were rigged and then boycotting the swearing-in of chief minister Nitish Kumar, the Opposition parties, especially the RJD and Tejashwi Yadav, have demeaned their excellent performance and cast doubts on the electoral process. Granted that a loss by such a wafer-thin margin hurts after a grueling campaign and feedback from the field that they were on course to victory, still one has to accept defeat with humility and prepare for another battle by learning from the loss.
Although Tejashwi Yadav has emerged as the rising star of Bihar politics and nearly put it across the NDA, he has to acknowledge that in the end, the combined might of the BJP and the JD(U) was too strong for him. In his eagerness to take advantage of the raging anti-incumbency against Nitish Kumar, Yadav forgot that there was also huge support for Prime Minister Modi and the BJP. He erred in giving in to the demands of his coalition partners, especially the Congress. Even as that was a big tactical error, Tejashwi also could not convince the Congress brass to show interest in the polls by campaigning hard. The dismal performance of the grand old party was one of the main reasons why the Mahagathbandhan (MGB) failed to beat the NDA.
If Yadav had been more astute in negotiating with the Congress, if he had shown them their true place by not allotting them seats disproportionate with their current standing in the political scenario of the state, maybe the RJD could have fought on those 10 or 15 seats and won. That would have made a difference and the MGB would have come up winners. Further, the MGB could not take full advantage of the rift between the NDA and Chirag Paswan and could not get their cast arithmetic right to snare more seats where the LJP had fielded candidates against the JD(U).
Tejashwi Yadav has made a huge impact. He has shown that given the right alliance, he can beat the NDA. Hence, instead of sounding like a sore loser, Yadav must introspect and go back to the drawing board to find out what went wrong. He must take the poll data from all constituencies and analyze why voters voted the way they did. He must get his cast arithmetic right. Finally, he must now have the confidence not give in to parties like the Congress on seat sharing. His party was best placed to take advantage of the anti-incumbency. Yet he allowed the Congress to become the weak link by allotting it many more seats than it deserved. That, in the ned, made the difference between victory and defeat.
