On Thursday, RJD working president Tejashwi Yadav claimed that the ruling NDA in Bihar had spent a staggering Rs 40,000 crore to defeat the Mahagathbandhan, led by him, in the 2025 assembly elections.
Yadav, who is the leader of the Opposition, made the indirect reference to a series of sops offered by the Nitish Kumar government in the run-up to the polls, while participating in a debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor's reply.
"The people were defeated in the polls, which were won by the power machinery (lok haara, tantra jeeta). You people have reduced lok tantra (democracy) to a rule of fear and intimidation (dar tantra)", alleged the young leader, who was allowed to deliver his speech while remaining seated in his chair because of a leg injury.
"You spent Rs 40,000 crore to defeat us. The time may be on your side as of now, but our time will also come," said Yadav, a former Deputy CM, who had been named the "chief ministerial candidate" of the multi-party opposition coalition in the elections.
The RJD leader slammed the BJP-led coalition for allegedly demeaning women while seeking their votes, pointing towards a dole of Rs 10,000 to over one crore women in Bihar, ahead of the polls.
Also read: Tejashwi Yadav is new RJD working president
"Soon after the elections, a leader from Uttarakhand, where your party is in power, made an unsavoury remark about marriageable girls in Bihar coming cheap. So much for your posturing," Yadav said, referring to a controversial comment by the husband of Uttarakhand minister Rekha Arya.
Yadav also lambasted the Bihar government over the recent death of a NEET aspirant in Patna, following a suspected sexual assault, a case which has been referred to the CBI.
He also criticised the government for its failure to get hiked quotas for deprived castes in Ninth Schedule of the Constitution and secure special status for Bihar, despite Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD (U) being a crucial ally of the BJP, which rules the Centre.
"Of course, now that the elections are over, the Centre, too, seems to have forgotten Bihar", said Yadav, tongue in cheek.
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