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Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahni demands 60 seats in Bihar elections and aims for Deputy CM post if ‘Mahagathbandhan’ wins
Mukesh Sahni asserted that if Tejashwi Yadav becomes Chief Minister, then he should be the “second”. (PTI Photo)
Ahead of the Assembly elections in Bihar, Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahni has shaken up the political scene in the state with a series of bold declarations about his party’s role in the upcoming polls and his personal political ambitions. In an exclusive interview with News18 Hindi, Sahni made it clear that he sees himself not just as a participant in the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance), but as its second most important leader, even staking claim to the Deputy Chief Minister’s post if the alliance forms government.
Sahni reiterated that his party will not settle for anything less than 60 seats in the alliance’s seat-sharing talks. “This is non-negotiable,” he said, recalling the same demand made at a recent conclave. When asked whether this positioning would relegate the Congress to a third-tier role, Sahni softened the edges, saying there could be a marginal variation of “two, four, or five seats,” but emphasised that dropping to 50 or 45 seats was out of the question. “There are 243 seats in Bihar. Everyone can be accommodated,” he added.
Sahni was even more forthright about his political ambitions, asserting that if Tejashwi Yadav becomes Chief Minister, then he should be the “second”, a metaphor for the Deputy CM role. “You can’t do much just by being a minister,” Sahni said, reflecting on his past stint in the state cabinet. When you have face value and clarity of purpose, your people believe in you, he further explained.
Sahni also drew attention to the sizeable 37% Extremely Backward Class (EBC) population in Bihar, which he claims has lacked real leadership since the days of former Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur. Sahni, who belongs to the Nishad community, said the group makes up 12% of the state’s population and deserves proportional political representation.
Emphasising shared backward caste identities, Sahni framed the future of the grand alliance as one led by “two grooms” – one OBC (Tejashwi Yadav) and one EBC (himself). “If Tejashwi ji is the groom, then Mukesh Sahni is also the groom – Son of Malla,” he declared, adding, “We are not baraatis (guests). We are co-grooms.”
He argued that this dual leadership model fits squarely with the ideology of RJD founder Lalu Prasad Yadav, who built his political brand on backward caste solidarity.
Sahni did not hold back from attacking Bihar’s current leadership. “Nitish ji is the leader, but the two deputy CMs are just loaders,” he said, referring to BJP leaders Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Sinha. Taking a dig at the BJP, he claimed that the decision on future deputy chief ministers will be made not in Patna, but in Delhi.
Though he called Nitish Kumar his “guardian”, Sahni suggested the Chief Minister is now past his prime. Bureaucrats are running the state, liquor is freely available despite prohibition, and crime is on the rise, he said.
With state politics already heating up ahead of the elections, Sahni’s remarks are likely to trigger fresh recalculations among alliance partners, and sharpen the focus on caste arithmetic in Bihar’s ever-shifting power landscape.
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