New Delhi: The opposition INDIA bloc on Thursday (April 17) announced that former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav will head the Mahagathbandhan’s coordination committee for the upcoming assembly elections in the state.While the alliance did not pronounce Yadav as its chief ministerial face, it said that the leader of opposition will lead the coordination committee that will be formed involving all alliance partners, which will decide among other things a common minimum programme, a manifesto and seat-sharing arrangements.The leaders of the six alliance parties – the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation (CPI(ML)), Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) – met in Patna on Thursday.In 2020, the Mukesh Sahani-led VIP had walked out of the alliance ahead of the polls over disagreements on seat sharing arrangements.Following the meeting, the Congress’s Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru said at a joint press conference that all decisions relating to how the poll campaign will be conducted will be taken by the coordination committee, which will be headed by Yadav.“All decisions relating to the Bihar elections from seat-sharing arrangements to a common minimum programme and a manifesto to shaping the campaign, bringing coordination among parties, media coordination, voter lists and all other poll-related work will be overseen by the coordination committee, which will be the supreme body for the INDIA alliance and the chairman of this committee will be Tejashwi Yadav.“The coordination committee will include members from all alliance parties,” he said.The meeting came two days after Yadav met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on Wednesday.“The first meeting of the Mahagathbandhan was held today on the situation in Bihar. We particularly discussed matters related to poverty, unemployment and migration,” said Yadav after the meeting.He continued: “There is a lot of anger among the people of Bihar against the government, which has been in power for the last 20 years. In 20 years, their own Union government NITI Aayog report says that Bihar is the poorest. Bihar is the number one in unemployment, poverty, migration and rising crime. There is no such thing as law and order in Bihar.“What can we say about the chief minister [Nitish Kumar], but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah keep coming to Bihar. They should answer [for] what is happening in Bihar. Not just Nitish Kumar, but the entire NDA is responsible for this. The real double engine in Bihar is crime and corruption.”In the 2020 assembly elections, the Congress contested 70 seats and won 19, while the RJD won 75 of the 144 seats it contested.The CPI(ML) won 12 of the 19 seats it contested.While the VIP had left the alliance, it won four seats.