No Deputy CM Post: RJD Tells Mukesh Sahni

Mon, 11 August 2025

11:23

Contrary to repeated claims by Vikashsheel Insaan Party head Mukesh Sahni that he will be Bihar's deputy chief minister if the Mahagathbandan is elected to power in the assembly election, Rashtriya Janata Dal General Secretary Abdul Bari Siddiqui says, "Yeh kahin bhi tai nahi hua hai ki sarkar banegi toh Mukesh Sahni deputy CM banenge (It has not been decided that Mukesh Sahni will be made deputy chief minister if we form a government)."

The RJD leads the Mahagathbandan, which has the Congress, the Left parties and Sahni's VIP as its other members.

This is the first time that a senior RJD leader has publicly refuted Sahni's claim and is bound to heat politics within the Mahagathbandan ahead of the assembly election, scheduled for October-November.

Sahni, who belongs to the extremely backward Mallah caste, wants the Mahagathbandan to allocate 60 of Bihar's 243 assembly seats to the VIP and the deputy chief minister's post if the Opposition alliance is elected to power.

All eyes will be on Sahni now to see whether he will quit the Mahagathbandan and join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance ahead of the elections.

Sources in the VIP claim that the BJP has offered Sahni a ministership in Delhi, a Rajya Sabha seat and a decent number of seats to contest the Bihar assembly polls if the VIP joins the NDA.

Sahni quit the Mahagathbandhan over seat sharing issues and joined the NDA just ahead of the 2020 Bihar assembly polls. He returned to the Mahagathbandan a couple of years later.

-- M I Khan in Patna

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