Tejashwi dismisses reports suggesting disintegration of grand alliance after poll debacle

Former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav dismissed reports of the disintegration of the Mahagathbandhan in the state after the debacle in the Lok Sabha polls, terming such claims as "rumours".

"According to me, the talks of the disintegration of grand-alliance after the poll results are just a rumour," Tejashwi said while addressing a press conference after a meeting of grand-alliance leaders. "We are together. We will face the challenges and the elections in the future together," he added.

Tejashwi conceded that the grand-alliance was not expecting such results.

"We were not expecting such results. When the three big leaders of NDA-- Nitish Kumar, Sushil Modi, and Ramvilas Paswan used to do an election rally together, the crowd was barely 200-300. What is the actual reason behind the defeat, it is too early to talk about it. We can only know the cause of defeat by being among people," he said.

Tejashwi, however, said that "winning and losing in elections keep happening."

"But, we have not lost motivation," he said adding that a committee has been formed to look into the cause of defeat in elections.

The RJD leader claimed that the people were "misled" by the BJP led NDA.

"The people were misled. They did not fight elections on the issues concerned with people but on an agenda. We feel that as part of some conspiracy, the people were misled. We will rescue the people from the trap laid out by BJP, JDU and NDA," the former state Deputy Chief Minister said.

When asked about no Congress leader attending the meeting, Tejashwi said, "Congress party has invited us for the meeting in Delhi, where election results will be discussed. We are in touch with Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, and others. We will participate in the meeting there.