Chirag Paswan slams Tejashwi Yadav over ‘power bank’ jab, says the RJD is dividing Bihar

Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas (LJP-RV) president Chirag Paswan on Tuesday (September 30, 2025) criticised Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav for the latter’s remark that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) considers the Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) a “vote bank” whereas they were a “power bank”.

Lashing out at Mr. Yadav, who is the Leader of the Opposition in Bihar Legislative Assembly, Mr. Paswan said that he had never classified any Bihari into any category, and for him, they were all the “people of Bihar”. Young leaders such as Mr. Yadav should not divide people on caste lines, Mr. Paswan said.

In the run-up to the Assembly election in Bihar, Mr. Yadav has spoken of the importance of EBCs, which constitute 36% of Bihar’s population according to the caste-based survey conducted by the State government in two phases in 2023.

Last Saturday (September 27, 2025), while addressing a gathering of EBCs, Mr. Yadav had alleged that the NDA merely treats the EBCs as a “vote bank” whereas they were an important force in governance, and the EBC would no longer be a “vote bank” but rather a “power bank”.

The EBCs will no longer form the government; they would become the government themselves, Mr. Yadav had said.

“I have never ever considered any Bihari as EBC, OBC (Other Backward Classes), Dalit, Mahadalit, backward, Hindu, and Muslims. For me, they all are the people of Bihar, and Bihari. I will talk about 14 crore Biharis, Bihar first and Bihari first. It’s mentality like that of the Leader of the Opposition has destroyed Bihar,” Mr. Paswan said.

“He (Mr. Yadav) calls himself a leader of the 21st century and divides people into castes. Thinking like [this] — who belongs to which caste and which caste does he want to make his vote bank — has destroyed Bihar. It is the way to go ahead in politics. Actually, they can think like this because they are people who hang the locket of ‘MY’ (Muslim-Yadav) in front of their chest,” Mr. Paswan said.

The RJD was the party dividing Bihar on caste and communal lines, Mr. Paswan alleged.

“Even I talk about the ‘MY’ but for me ‘M’ means mahila (women), who are half of the population in the country as well the world, and ‘Y’ means youth, who are the biggest chunk [of the population] in Bihar. We do not expect young leaders to talk like this, and divide society to drag Bihar 50 years back. He (Mr. Yadav) should refrain from having such a mentality,” Mr. Paswan said.

Reacting to the Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor’s allegation against senior Bihar BJP leaders, Mr. Paswan said former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had done something similar by coming out with one allegation another, but had fallen silent after becoming CM. 

Both the NDA and the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc are trying to attract the EBC vote, which may decide election outcomes. Whichever party secures the EBC vote is likely to form the government in Bihar. The EBCs have thus far been Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s core vote bank.

Senior leaders of the INDIA bloc, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, and Mr. Yadav, released a 10-point resolution for EBCs, including a law for protection against atrocities on the lines of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act, if the INDIA bloc came to power.