Bihar polls: Tejashwi Yadav named CM face by INDIA bloc, Mukesh Sahani for deputy

Putting to rest weeks of speculation and rumours of rifts within the alliance, the INDIA bloc on 23 October, Thursday, officially declared former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav as its chief ministerial face for the Bihar assembly elections in November.

The announcement was made by senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, who said the decision had been reached with the “consensus of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition [in the Lok Sabha] Rahul Gandhi, and all alliance partners”.

“Tejashwi Yadav-ji has a long political journey, and we are confident the people of Bihar will shower him with immense love,” Gehlot said.

“Along with this, we are declaring young comrade Mukesh Sahani [of the Vikassheel Insaan Party] as a deputy chief ministerial face for the alliance. One more deputy CM candidate will be announced later.”

In a pointed remark aimed at the BJP, Gehlot added, “We have declared our chief ministerial face — now Amit Shah-ji should tell the people who will be NDA’s CM candidate.”

Both the RJD and the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) had been pressing for Yadav and Sahani to be projected as the CM and deputy CM candidates, respectively.

Announcement of the chief ministerial face and his deputy is being seen as an attempt to consolidate the bloc’s OBC–Dalit–minority base ahead of the polls.

Visibly emotional and assertive, Tejashwi expressed gratitude to alliance partners and said, “We, the people of the Mahagathbandhan, do not just want to form a government or become chief minister — we want to build a better Bihar. I thank all the members of the alliance for showing trust in me. I will do everything possible to live up to your expectations, and together we will end this 20-year-old government.”

He also thanked senior leaders of the ‘Grand Alliance’, including his parents and former chief ministers Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi, as well as Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge for “bestowing faith in him”.

The announcement marks a strategic shift in the Congress’ stance. Until recently, the party had largely refrained from backing Tejashwi as the chief ministerial face. When asked earlier, Rahul Gandhi had avoided a direct endorsement, saying only that “all INDIA bloc partners are working together in a spirit of mutual respect” — though another leader had stated one does not need to point out the sun in the sky during daytime!

By formally endorsing Tejashwi now, the Congress appears to have acknowledged his local appeal on the ground and his leadership potential, especially among Bihar’s youth and backward communities. It also reflects the party’s intent to avoid the leadership vacuum that has plagued opposition coalitions in the past.

For Tejashwi, this is both a test and an opportunity. The 35-year-old leader, heir to Lalu Yadav’s Mandal-era legacy, steered the RJD to emerge as the single largest party in the 2020 assembly elections. His brief tenure as Nitish Kumar’s deputy was cut short by yet another JD(U) chief’s political U-turn, but it helped him build a pro-development, youth-centric image in a short time — a departure from the old guard’s style of politics.

As per political observers, the 2025 Bihar elections are now shaping up as a direct contest between Nitish Kumar’s continuity and Tejashwi Yadav’s promise of change. Nitish, who has held the top post since 2005 through multiple alliances — except the 17 months from 14 May 2014 to 15 February 2015, when his party performed poorly in the 2014 elections — remains the NDA’s likely choice.

By projecting Tejashwi as its face, the INDIA bloc meanwhile is attempting to turn the election into a generational and ideological battle — between an ageing leadership seen as aligned with a problematic BJP and a younger opposition invoking social justice and economic renewal.

If the alliance manages to wrest power from the NDA this time, it could be the first election in a decade where the opposition wins the day with a clear leader already positioned for the seat of power, as well as an united message and credible social arithmetics.