A day after the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan suffered a crushing defeat by the hands of the incumbent NDA within the Bihar meeting polls, RJD president Lalu Prasad’s daughter Rohini Acharya on Saturday introduced that she would “give up” politics and sever ties together with her household.
Acharya made the announcement in a cryptic submit on X, saying, “I’m quitting politics and disowning my household…That is what Mr. Sanjay Yadav and Mr. Rameez have requested me to do and I take full accountability.”
The timing of her announcement was important because the Bihar ballot outcomes returned the NDA to energy, decreasing the RJD’s seat depend to 25 from the 75 it secured within the 2020 elections.
A health care provider by coaching, Acharya had little involvement in energetic politics till lately, however selected to turn out to be a housewife and settled in Singapore together with her husband.
Acharya didn’t elaborate on what Sanjay Yadav and Ramez had mentioned to her. No remark may very well be obtained.
Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Yadav is an in depth aide of RJD chief Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu’s youthful son, and spearheaded the social gathering within the elections. Rameez is claimed to be a long-time buddy of Tejashwi, who belongs to a political household from Uttar Pradesh.
Acharya’s announcement comes as discord inside the RJD’s first household has turn out to be extra obvious in latest months.
Final month, she was within the information for unfollowing each Lal and Tejashwi on X, which was extensively interpreted as an indication of discord between the household. Her transfer adopted social media posts criticizing Sanjay Yadav’s rising affect inside the RJD.
Acharya made headlines in 2022 when he donated his kidney to his father, Lal, who was present process kidney remedy in Singapore.
Within the 2024 meeting elections, the RJD fielded her from Saran constituency, the place she misplaced to BJP chief Rajiv Pratap Rudy by a margin of over 13,600 votes.
There was hypothesis that Ms Acharya was upset over her brother Tej Pratap Yadav’s expulsion from the RJD and the Lalu household in Could this yr following a social media submit indicating a “long-term relationship” with a lady, however she had publicly supported Mr Tejashwi in the course of the marketing campaign.
Regardless of this public present of solidarity, rifts inside the Lall household seem to have deepened. Acharya had mentioned earlier than the elections that she had no intention of contesting from any meeting seat, however RJD officers mentioned they needed her to have a say in choosing the social gathering’s candidates for meeting seats within the Saran constituency.
“Her thought was to develop Saran from a spot the place she might contest once more within the 2029 Lok Sabha polls, however Tejashwi and Sanjay Yadav appear to have nixed that,” mentioned an RJD official. “As Lalu Prasad refused to intervene within the matter, Acharya left Patna for Singapore and unfollowed all RJD leaders on social media, together with her father and brother. Her determination to give up politics had loads to do with Tejashwi being surrounded by her personal folks and retaining Lalu out of any infighting amongst her youngsters.”
Forward of the meeting elections, tensions inside the RJD escalated after Mr. Acharya reposted a message on social media criticizing Mr. Sanjay’s outstanding place in Mr. Tejashwi’s ‘Bihar Adhikar Yatra’.
The submit mentioned the entrance seat of the Yatra bus ought to have been reserved for both Lal or Tejashwi and never for another particular person, even of their absence. This led to public criticism of Rohini inside the household, however she later tried to make clear her place by emphasizing the significance of social justice and the illustration of Dalit leaders in social gathering actions.
Acharya’s criticism of Sanjay additionally pointed to widespread dissatisfaction inside the RJD over his position in shaping Tejashwi’s political roadmap.
After being expelled from the Lalu household and the RJD, Tej Pratap began his personal group, the Janshakti Janata Dal (JJD), which additionally contested the Meeting polls, however drew a clean vote.
