Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav has told his party leaders that he would “deal” with the ongoing feud in his family, referring to the fight between his son, Tejashwi Yadav, and daughter, Rohini Acharya, following the party’s drubbing in the recent Bihar assembly elections, sources said.
Lalu made the remarks, the first ones since the shocking developments in the family came to light on Saturday, during the meeting of the newly elected RJD MLAs on Monday.
“This is an internal family matter and will be resolved within the family. I am there to deal with it,” Lalu said at a meeting in Patna, sources said.
During the meeting, which was attended by senior RJD leaders, including Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi, eldest daughter Misa Bharti and Jagdanand Singh, Tejashwi was chosen as the legislature party leader.
Lalu also praised Tejashwi, saying that he “worked very hard” for the Bihar polls, in which the RJD could only win 25 seats in the 243-member assembly, its second-worst performance in a poll after 2010.
Tejashwi will only take the party forward, he said, according to sources.
The Tejashwi Yadav-Rohini Acharya Fight
Tejashwi Yadav reportedly had a heated argument with Rohini Acharya on Saturday, a day after the Bihar assembly election results were announced.
During the argument at their Patna residence, Tejashwi, who was the chief ministerial face of the Opposition bloc, blamed Acharya for the loss.
“Tumhare karan ham chunaav haar gae (We lost the election because of you). Tumhara haay lag gaya ham logo ko (We are cursed because of you),” he told his elder sister, according to sources.
He then angrily threw a slipper at her and abused her, sources said.
Rohini Acharya’s Bombshell
Rohini Acharya, who is one of Lalu Yadav’s nine children, on Saturday afternoon said she was disowning her family and quitting politics.
In a post on X, she said that she had been asked to do so by senior RJD leader Sanjay Yadav, who is a close aide of Tejashwi, and Rameez Nemat Khan, a long-time friend of Tejashwi and member of his core team.
Acharya, who unsuccessfully contested last year’s Lok Sabha polls from Saran, also said that she is “taking all the blame”, without specifying whether she was referring to the Bihar election loss or something else.
Asked by reporters about her post hours later, she said those who question Tejashwi’s aides are thrown out of the house.
“I don’t have a family anymore. Go ask Sanjay, Rameez, and Tejashwi Yadav. They have thrown me out of the family because they don’t want to take responsibility. People who want to be Chanakya will be the ones questions will be asked of. When a party worker is asking questions of Chanakya… the world is asking how the party ended up in such a situation (in the Bihar polls),” she said.
“When you take Sanjay and Rameez’s name, however, you are thrown out of the house, you are defamed, and you are attacked with slippers,” she alleged.
In a new post Sunday morning, she said that she was “humiliated” on Saturday.
“Yesterday, a daughter, a sister, a married woman, and a mother was humiliated; filthy abuses were hurled at her, and a slipper was raised. I did not compromise on my self-respect, I did not surrender the truth, and solely because of this, I had to endure this insult,” she wrote in Hindi.
She said that a daughter had to leave her “crying parents and sisters out of compulsion”
“They took my maternal home away… They left me orphaned… May none of you ever walk my path; may no family ever have a daughter-sister like Rohini,” she added.
In another post, she said she was “abused” and was told that she was “filthy” and her kidney, which she donated to Lalu Yadav in 2022, was “filthy”.
“Yesterday, I was abused and told that I am filthy and that I got my father to have my filthy kidney transplanted into him after taking crores of rupees, buying a ticket… To all the daughters and sisters who are married, I will say that when there’s a son or brother in your maternal home, never, ever save your God-like father; instead, tell your brother, the son of that house, to get his own kidney or that of one of his Haryanvi friends transplanted,” she wrote.
“All sisters and daughters should look after their own homes and families, take care of their children and their in-laws’ household without caring for their parents, think only about themselves… For me, it became a huge sin that I didn’t look after my family, my three children, and didn’t take permission from my husband or my in-laws when donating the kidney,” she added.
She said she donated the kidney to save “my God, my father”
“May none of you ever make a mistake like mine; may no family ever have a daughter like Rohini,” she said.
Acharya was reportedly unhappy over the expulsion of her elder brother, Tej Pratap Yadav, from the party for “irresponsible behaviour”. However, in the run-up to the assembly elections, she was seen campaigning for Tejashwi.
Three more of Lalu’s daughters – Rajlakshmi, Ragini and Chanda – have also reportedly left the family’s 10, Circular Road residence in Patna.