Rahul Gandhi to kick off Bihar campaign in a joint rally with Tejashwi Yadav

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to kick-start his election campaign in Bihar on Friday by addressing a joint rally along with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav at Hisua in Nawada district, said party members. The joint rally of the two opposition leaders will coincide with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Nitish Kumar kicking off their joint rallies on the same day.

The Gandhi-Yadav joint appearance in the Congress leader’s first campaign rally ahead of the Bihar polls is designed to drive home the message of total unity in the opposition alliance. Some leaders of the Left parties may also join them. After the joint rally with Yadav, Gandhi will travel to Bhagalpur to address another rally at Kahalgaon later in the day.

Gandhi will be addressing more rallies during the three-phased campaign. “Rahul ji will address rallies in all three phases of the election campaign and his detailed programme is being worked out as per the requirement of the Congress and the opposition alliance. The alliance leaders may also hold more joint rallies,” said a senior opposition leader, who did not wish to be identified.


This will be the second election campaign in which the Gandhi-Yadav combine is leading the opposition alliance in Bihar. Since their joint campaign in the previous Lok Sabha polls ended in a rout for the RJD-Congress alliance, this time all efforts are being made to launch a blitzkrieg for the RJD-Congress-Left alliance to capitalise on the incumbency burden of the JD (U)-BJP government.

This time the opposition alliance is also taking extra care not to repeat the Lok Sabha polls campaign mistake of poor campaign coordination among allies. A group of senior alliance leaders such as Shivanand Tiwari, Manoj Jha (RJD), Mohan Prakash, Subodh Kant Sahay (Congress), Parvez (CPI-ML), Rambabu Kumar (CPI) and Arun Mishra (CPM) are holding meetings every day to coordinate and fine-tune the campaign programmes of the alliance.

The opposition alliance is upbeat about the impressive crowds at Tejashwi Yadav’s daily rallies and it is banking on a better coalition chemistry among alliance partners, anti-incumbency for the ruling front and the spoiler role LJP is threatening to play in the JD(U) seats.