Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday slammed the ruling BJP at the Centre for its “anti-social justice” approach and called for all like-minded parties, including regional players, to jointly take on the saffron party-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. He heaped praises on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, at an event organised by the DMK to mark the latter’s 70th birthday, saying his leadership comes from the legacy of late Dravidian stalwarts– EV Ramasamy ‘Periyar,’ CN Annadurai and M Karunanidhi.

“We know strong and effective leadership can come only from conviction from values of social justice,” he said.

The event was attended by Congress President Mallikarjuna Kharge, NC leader Farooq Abdullah and former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav.

“This is also an occasion to declare that it is a meeting ground of parties with social justice background,” Yadav said.

“The politics of hollow supremacy can be stopped only by the collective will of the people of India. Your focus on social justice and opposition to caste discrimination has resonated with the voters of in your state. Parties in north India should learn and re-learn this continuously and prioritise issues related to social justice and the marginalised communities,” he added.

Yadav alleged the “approach” of the Union government is “fundamentally anti-social justice.”

“We cannot have a vision of India which looks at marginalised people with contempt…” he said. The DMK has emphasised the need for economic development and job creation. In Bihar “we are working on a similar blueprint but we also need a similar focus at the national level and promote policies that prioritise inclusive economic development rather than promoting a few crony capitalists.”

The country was suffering from several issues like unemployment, inflation and “they had hijacked all the constitutional institutions,” he said in an apparent reference to the BJP. Democracy was in danger, he alleged.

He said his father and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav keeps insisting there was an “undeclared emergency in the country.”

“So we need to fight back. What they have been trying to do in Maharashtra, what they have been trying to do in Jharkhand but Bihar had made them a loser and that is the concept. All the senior leaders are here, Kharge ji is here. I have been appealing to everyone– all the regional parties, all the opposition parties to come together on one platform; all the like minded parties. We can defeat them,” he added.