RJD to contest Kerala assembly polls as part of LDF, says Tejashwi Yadav

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) will contest the upcoming Kerala assembly elections as part of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) , the party’s working president Tejashwi Yadav said on Sunday, highlighting the increasingly complex and state-specific nature of political alliances in India.

The former Bihar deputy chief minister made the announcement after a meeting with legislators of the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan , hours ahead of voting for five Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar . “In Kerala, our party will contest the assembly polls as part of the LDF . Our party has had a presence in the Kerala assembly in the past. We hope to help the LDF retain power in the state,” Yadav said.

The decision underlines unusual alliance dynamics , as the Congress which leads the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala and is the main rival of the CPI(M)-led LDF is also a key partner of the RJD in Bihar’s Mahagathbandhan . The arrangement reflects the complexity of regional political strategies, where parties often adopt state-specific alliances to maximise their electoral prospects.

In Bihar, the RJD holds 25 MLAs in the 243-member assembly and is banking on the support of 10 legislators from other Mahagathbandhan partners , besides five MLAs of Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM and one of Mayawati’s BSP , for the Rajya Sabha polls. All MLAs of the Mahagathbandhan, excluding those from AIMIM and BSP, have been invited to stay overnight at a hotel in Patna before proceeding to the assembly on Monday to cast their votes.

A total of six candidates are in the fray for five Rajya Sabha seats , including RJD’s sitting MP Amarendra Dhari Singh . The remaining candidates belong to the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) , among them Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) and BJP MLA Nitin Nabin , who recently became the party’s national president .

Meanwhile, rumours that four Congress MLAs had gone “missing” triggered speculation of possible cross-voting. However, former state Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh dismissed the claims, saying all four legislators were at his residence and that there was “no problem in the Mahagathbandhan.” He added that the alliance remained confident of winning the Rajya Sabha seat and suggested that the NDA should instead worry about its own numbers .