Tejashwi Yadav has no brand value: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Taking a dig at Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, Assam Chief Minister and BJP's Jharkhand assembly election co-in-charge Himanta Biswa Sarma expressed dismay over Yadav's 'diminishing influence'.

CM Sarma remarked that the people of Bihar would recognize Tejashwi’s lack of "brand value" in the state’s political landscape, pointing to recent developments as evidence.

Sarma highlighted Yadav's repeated attempts to meet Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, noting that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader had visited the Chief Minister's residence three times without success. "If I were in the same position and came to meet a BJP Chief Minister, he wouldn’t need to invite me multiple times. If he called me once, he would meet me the next time,” Sarma asserted. He interpreted Soren's apparent refusal to engage with Yadav as a public humiliation and a sign of fractured ties within the alliance.

Amid this backdrop, Sarma also mentioned that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had intervened, reportedly urging RJD founder Lalu Prasad Yadav to maintain the alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). Despite these efforts, Soren’s continued avoidance of Tejashwi Yadav underscored deeper rifts. Sarma suggested that such setbacks exposed Yadav's declining stature in Bihar politics, a development that could benefit the BJP's electoral strategies in the region.

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