Tejashwi Yadav questions Yogi model, mocks cult of 'Bulldozer baba'

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday questioned the “Yogi (Adityanath) model” of governance in Uttar Pradesh which BJP leaders of Bihar have been raving about and wanting to replicate.

The leader of the opposition in the Bihar assembly also pooh-poohed the “bulldozer” imagery and claimed that the iron-fisted administration in the adjoining UP had failed to control law and order and solve problems like unemployment.

“What is the Yogi model? What is this talk of bulldozer baba? Why has this bulldozer not been able to demolish unemployment and poverty? Why has it failed to check crime?" he asked in reply to questions from journalists.

Also Read | Bulldozer has started 'crushing' people under BJP rule, says Akhilesh

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath earned the sobriquet of “bulldozer baba” during the recent elections due to his frequent reference to the heavy machine that his dispensation deployed to raze the ill-gotten property of criminals and mafias in the state.

BJP leaders in Bihar have been puffed up over now, having the largest number of MLAs, following the defection of all three MLAs of expelled minister Mukesh Sahani’s Vikassheel Insaan Party.

Earlier, the saffron party’s strength was one less than that of the RJD which helms the opposition.

Vocal BJP leaders in Bihar have also expressed the opinion that it was now time for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to hang his boots since the fire he had upon taking over in 2005 has petered out.

Buoyed by their party’s recent electoral performance in UP where it created history by returning to power for a second consecutive term, the BJP leaders here have been asserting that the state now wanted “Yogi model” – an indirect way of saying that the JD(U) leader should now give up the Chief Minister’s chair for his ally.

Yadav also took potshots at the BJP for the treatment it has allegedly meted out to Chirag Paswan, who is now in news following eviction from the ministerial bungalow in New Delhi which his late father Ram Vilas Paswan had occupied till his last breath and which served as headquarters of the Lok Janshakti Party.

“The bungalow happened to be the LJP’s poll symbol. The BJP did not just expel Chirag from the government building. It also set his own house on fire by engineering the family feud. Now he cannot even use the symbol by which his party has been known”, said Yadav referring to the split suffered by the Lok Janshakti Party a year ago.

The BJP government at the Centre ended up recognising the splinter group headed by Chirag’s uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, including it in the NDA and inducting the latter into the Union cabinet.

Following a legal wrangle involving the uncle and the nephew, the Election Commission decided to freeze the symbol.

Yadav said, “Chirag was rewarded in this fashion for his proclaimed loyalty towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he likened to Lord Rama while comparing himself to Hanumana”.

Notably, upon the LJP split, Yadav and his father, Lalu Prasad, had been in favour of Chirag joining hands with the RJD. Prasad’s old association with Ram Vilas Paswan whom the former had helped get a Rajya Sabha seat in 2009 upon losing the Lok Sabha election, was also recalled.

Nonetheless, Chirag has decided to plough a lonely furrow and said he will think about forming coalitions only when elections were round the corner.

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