Patna: Launching a forceful opening salvo for the Grand Alliance’s election campaign, Chairman of the Coordination Committee Tejashwi Prasad Yadav announced a radical legislative commitment on Thursday: his government would enact a law guaranteeing one government job for every family in Bihar.
Speaking at his first press conference following the election announcement in Patna, the Leader of the Opposition declared that this law would be passed within twenty days of the Grand Alliance taking the oath of office.
“In 2020, I announced I would create ten lakh jobs with my own pen. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar scoffed at that, asking where I would bring the money from—from my father’s house?” Yadav stated. “But Tejashwi Yadav made it a reality. In just 17 months, we created five lakh jobs and put three lakh more under process. Today, the ruling party only talks about unemployment allowance, not providing jobs.”
Twenty Years of Failed Willpower
Yadav unleashed a scathing critique of the incumbent Chief Minister, alleging that the 20-year rule of the “double-engine government” has been marked by failed promises, corruption, and a fundamental lack of willpower.
“They make many promises before the elections, but afterwards, they dismiss them as mere rhetoric,” he asserted. Yadav specifically targeted the current administration’s flagship programs, claiming that the tap water scheme (Nal Jal Yojana) “fell prey to corruption.”
He accused the ruling coalition of belatedly copying his party’s unemployment agenda, but failing to grasp the gravity of the crisis. “The pain remains,” Yadav said, referencing the limited scale of past job creation under the NDA.
A Government Run by ‘The Entire Bihar’
Yadav positioned his promise not merely as a populist measure, but as a path to collective governance.
“The current government wants to keep the youth unemployed. The 20-year government instilled fear in every household,” he said. “If our government is formed, not just one or two parties, but the entire Bihar will run the government together.”
He linked his job guarantee directly to participatory democracy: “When every household has a job, people from every household will play their part in running the government.”
Concluding his address, which was attended by leaders including State President Manganilal Mandal, Yadav offered a foundational vision statement for the campaign. “In five years, we will prove through our work that my work is Bihari and my religion is Bihari. We will give the state a correct and perfect government.”
