Formerly an employee of a multinational corporation, Sanjay Yadav is now a poll strategist for the Rashtriya Janta Dal, or RJD. He is also a political advisor to its vice president, Tejashwi Yadav, the son of veteran politician Lalu Prasad Yadav. Sanjay, who grew up in Haryana’s Mahendragarh district, met Tejashwi in 2012, and became his advisor soon after. He is widely credited with the RJD’s performance in the assembly election in Bihar in 2015—after having won 22 seats in the 2010 election, the RJD won in 80 seats in 2015, emerging as the single largest party in Bihar. He was also involved in designing the campaign for the recent mahagatbandhan, or grand alliance in the state, ahead of the general elections. The alliance includes the Congress and the RJD, among other parties in Bihar.
Sagar, a staff writer at The Caravan, interviewed Sanjay about his work with the RJD and the party’s strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Sanjay said he realised early in his life that “politics is the only solution” for any of society’s problems. “Even when one has to get a naala”—drain—“built in one’s area, one has to approach a politician.” Sanjay also discussed the RJD’s recent stances on reservation—during visits to different parts of the state, Tejashwi has demanded that 90 percent of government jobs be reserved; the RJD opposed the manner in which the union government recently implemented 10-percent reservation for economically weaker sections excluding the reserved category; and the party has promised that, if elected, it will ensure reservation in proportion to the population of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class communities. Sanjay further spoke about the RJD’s approach to seat-sharing in Bihar and how it plans to counter the BJP’s attempts to attract OBC voters.
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