PATNA/NEW DELHI: RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad’s daughter Rohini Acharya’s outburst at her brother Tejashwi Yadav and his close associates for “abusing” and “throwing” her out of home is snowballing into a full-blown family feud and hints at increasing internal rumblings over the decisions of the party’s anointed heir after its bid for office unraveled spectacularly in the assembly polls.As she dropped another bombshell on Sunday by saying she was dissed for donating her “dirty kidney” to Lalu and was accused of extracting crores of rupees and a Lok Sabha ticket, three of her sisters – Ragini, Chanda and Rajlakshmi – left their parents’ Patna residence. Their brother Tej Pratap Yadav, disowned by his father and ousted from the party last year, spoke up against Rohini’s “humiliation”.Lalu, his younger son and political heir Tejashwi, and other family members have maintained silence, an indication of the division and conflicted emotions within. The party too has kept mum.Some party leaders suggested that differences among the siblings have long been simmering as Tejashwi took firmer control of the party and leaned on a set of advisers loyal to him to run its affairs. That arrangement has come up for questioning.
Insult meted out to my sister is intolerable: Tej PratapBut the Bihar assembly poll debacle has opened up this style of functioning to questioning. Rohini said everybody is wondering what fate has befallen RJD, a party that governed Bihar between 1990 and 2005.Tej Pratap said in a social media post, “Yesterday’s incident has shaken me. But the insult meted out to my sister is intolerable. “I tolerated whatever happened to me but her humiliation cannot be tolerated under any condition… The consequence of this injustice will be very dire.”
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He accused ‘Jaichands’ (betrayers), widely believed to be a reference to a couple of Tejashwi’s close associates, including Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Yadav, of targeting the Yadav family. Appealing to Lalu, he said, “Just one nod, and the people of Bihar will bury these Jaichands themselves. This fight is not for any party; it is for the honor of the family, the dignity of the daughter, and the self-respect of Bihar.”As the family fallout played out, TV footage showed three more daughters of Lalu’s reaching Patna airport with their children to catch a flight, reportedly for Delhi. None of them spoke to the media. Incidentally, their departure came hours after Rohini advised women to “look after your in-laws and families and take care of your children” rather than parents.“I would tell all married women never to do anything to save their parents, and if they have a brother, they should ask him to donate his own kidney or ask his Haryanavi friend to do so,” she said in an emotional post. She said she had committed a blunder by not obtaining permission from her husband and in-laws and not thinking about the future of her three children before donating a kidney to her father.Earlier, she alleged she was humiliated and abused, and a slipper was lifted to hit her. She said her parents, Lalu and Rabri Devi, both former CMs, were crying and blamed Sanjay Yadav and Rameez Nemat Khan, who hails from Uttar Pradesh and is said to be Tejashwi’s friend, for her “fate”. She named her brother too but directed most of her anger at his two associates.The developments followed RJD’s disastrous performance in the just-held assembly elections in Bihar, in which the party could win only 25 seats after contesting 143. Tejashwi was officially projected as MGB’s chief ministerial candidate.Meanwhile, the JD(U) asked Lalu to explain the developments and act. “She is the daughter of entire Bihar, then why are you silent, Lalu ji… Please break your silence,” JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said.
