Editor’s Note
This article contains a quote from a party worker expressing frustration over internal communication and a perceived lack of respect within their political organization.
This is the statement of a defeated RJD candidate. Tejashwi Yadav is speaking with candidates to review the defeat. Bhaskar spoke to 20 defeated RJD candidates and tried to understand what report they have prepared to give to Tejashwi.
Read the 5 major reasons for RJD’s defeat in Bhaskar’s exclusive report…
An RJD MLA explained, ‘The biggest reason for the crushing defeat is the lack of coordination within the organization. Previously, specific people were assigned for this, who would give candidates or leaders respect and honor according to their stature. Now, a complete corporate culture dominates the party. Anyone can just call anyone and give instructions.’
Because of this, there was not only resentment among grassroots leaders, but the leader’s message also failed to reach the ground properly. Moreover, bypassing party leaders from the state down to district, block, and panchayat levels, a paid team was created, which worked during the elections. This team failed to deliver the proper message.
RJD leaders spoke about the arbitrariness of Tejashwi Yadav’s advisor, Sanjay Yadav: ‘Sanjay Yadav had assigned three major party tasks to his special team. The biggest manipulation happened here. Because of them, the wrong message went to the ground level.
First – A big game was played in the surveys. Incorrect survey information was conveyed to Tejashwi Yadav. Areas where we were weak were also shown as strong. They have never shared the sample survey details nor taken our advice before going to the ground. They did not even take the help of RJD’s grassroots workers in this task. This caused the mess.
Second – After this, there was manipulation in candidate selection as well. RJD leaders claimed – Sanjay Yadav’s team sent the names of 3-4 people from each area for candidate selection. Money was taken from all by offering different inducements. This kind of game happened even where the party had strong candidates and tickets were confirmed. This sent the wrong message on the ground. They worked against us in the elections.
Third – Sanjay Yadav’s professional team was going door-to-door getting forms filled for the Mai-Bahin Maan Yojana. The team members took money from the area’s candidates and also from those whose forms they filled. This team couldn’t even reach every household in the assembly constituency. Due to the demand for money, the wrong message about our leader’s good policy reached the public.’
On Wednesday, Tejashwi Yadav spoke with RJD leaders who came for the review meeting.
An RJD MLA said, ‘During the elections, candidates wanted to meet their leader Tejashwi Yadav, but a system was created such that no one could meet him. The leader is not at fault here. He was kept so busy that he had no time.’
He was made to hold 15-17 rallies in a single day. The result was that he could neither spend time on stage at rallies nor meet the workers. This was also detrimental for us.
A candidate said, ‘Sitting MLAs’ tickets were cut, but they weren’t even spoken to. The list was just released. It wasn’t explained why the ticket was cut. Tejashwi Yadav didn’t even deem it necessary to meet them. The problem this caused was that after the tickets were cut, some people openly, while others from behind the scenes, got busy defeating the party.’
Citing the example of the Nabinagar seat, an MLA from Magadh said, ‘If W. Singh had gotten the ticket there, there would have been a strong fight between internal versus external forces, but he didn’t get the ticket. The result was that those who were dedicated to RJD for W. Singh got busy ensuring the victory of the JD(U) candidate.’
The MLAs said, ‘We made a big mistake in understanding social engineering. Throughout the election, we remained hopeful that we would get votes from all castes. The alliance was formed and candidate selection was done based on this, but on the ground, our engineering completely failed.’
The MLAs said, ‘Making Mukesh Sahni the Deputy CM candidate from the Mahagathbandhan was also a wrong decision. Because of this, at least 30-40 percent of Muslims moved away from us. Not only that, Mukesh Sahni couldn’t fully deliver the votes of his own caste either.’
They said, ‘We got votes from our own caste in every area, but we were not successful in securing the votes of the other castes we were trying to win over.’
RJD has started reviewing its defeat 12 days after the assembly election results. The party is trying to probe the reasons for the defeat on 119 seats. One-on-one meetings are being held with every candidate to get feedback on booth-level reports, voting patterns, performance of allied parties, and the role of the organization.
This program, running from November 26 to December 4, began with leaders from the Magadh division. Tejashwi joined online on the first day. Meanwhile, State President Mangani Lal Mandal was in the office with all the leaders.
