Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD | Photo credit: ANI
After the recent Rajya Sabha elections in Bihar, in which the ruling NDA won all five seats, the rift between the opposition Mahagathbadhan (Grand Alliance) coalition widened, of which four – three from the Congress and one RJD MLA – were declared absent. Ruling NDA leaders have now dared the opposition RJD to expel their lawmaker from the party, while the coalition Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (Liberation) accused the Congress that their votes were “useless”.
The opposition alliance – which called for a contest by fielding RJD candidate Amarendra Dhari Singh, did not win a single seat. The Rajya Sabha election results were released on 16 March. The BJP won two seats for party president Nitin Nabin and leader Shivesh Kumar, their ally JD(U) won two seats for chief minister Nitish Kumar and party leader Ram Nath Thakur, while alliance partner Rashtriya Lok Morcha chief Upendra Kushwaha won another seat but S lost the opposition. However, the opposition grand alliance with a total of 35 seats in the State Assembly managed to get the support of all five All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and one Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA from Ramgarh, Satish Kumar Singh Yadav. However, three Congress MLAs and an RJD MLA – were absent, making the victory of NDA’s fifth candidate Shivesh Kumar easy and comfortable.
All the absent MLAs Manoj Biswas, Surendra Kushwaha and Manohar Prasad from the Congress party and the lone RJD MLA from Dhaka constituency in East Champaran district Faisal Rahman gave various reasons for not casting their vote. But later, embarrassed State Congress disciplinary committee chairman Kapil Deo Prasad Yadav issued notices to all the three absent party MLAs, but the RJD is yet to take any action against Mr. Rahman.
“I dare RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav to take action against party MLA from Dhaka Faisal Rahman,” challenged JD(U) MLC and party spokesperson Neeraj Kumar. BJP state spokesperson Niraj Kumar said, “Tejashwi Yadav cannot take action against an absent party MLA. A person who could not even sustain a family or a party, how could he manage to hold an opposition Mahagathbandhan?”, he asked.
However, senior Congress leader and former All India Congress Committee (AICC) member Kishore Kumar Jha of Bihar’s Madhubani district opined that the party’s top leadership “lacked communication with the party workers and leaders responsible for the absence of three party MLAs in Bihar during the recently held RS poll”.
“The party top brass should realize that all the three absentee party MLAs were brought into the party from other parties and got ticket in the state assembly polls, thereby displacing the hardworking people’s leaders. That was also the reason why there were incidents of cross-voting of Congress leaders in other states during the RS poll. When you give preference to non-party leaders and make them MLAs, these are the things, Mr. Jha.” Independent MP from Purnea, Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav also took on RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav for “running away after RS poll defeat”.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, is said to have gone to Kolkata for a vacation with his family immediately after the Rajya Sabha poll results.
Similarly, opposition ally Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (Liberation) MLA from Paliganj constituency of Patna district Sandeep Saurav criticized that the votes of his party leaders during the recently concluded Rajya Sabha elections had become “useless” because of the Congress party.
Political scientist NK Choudhary said that the RJD “will not be able to take any action against the party’s absentee Dhaka MLA Faisal Rahman as even a slight drop in the party’s 25 MLAs in the State Assembly has robbed him of the position of Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, which is equivalent to the rank of a Cabinet Minister”.
As per the rules, a political party must have 10% more legislators than the total number of MLAs in the State Assembly to claim the post of Leader of the Opposition. In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, the RJD has 25 MLAs. “However, the rules also provide that the government has the discretion to grant the Leader of the Opposition post even if the party in question does not reach the required strength,” Mr Choudhary said, citing an example in 2010 when RJD MLA Abdul Bari Siddiqui was appointed Leader of the Opposition despite the party having only 22 members in the House.
Published – 20 March 2026 03:43 IST
