Misa denies rift in family, says she was misquoted

A day after dropping ample hints about a "rift" between her brothers Tej Pratap and Tejashwi, Lalu’s eldest daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharti denied having made such comments.

“I was misquoted, when I was explaining to my party workers about a rift in the family,” the doctor-turned-politician said here on Tuesday.

On Monday, a section of the media reported how Misa, nursing huge political ambitions, talked about a "rift" in her family.

“Har parivar mein hota hai man-mutao. Hamare yahan bhi hai. (In every family, there are differences. It could be even in our family)….All the five fingers of our hands are not equal… RJD is also a big family. Differences are bound to occur,” said Misa while explaining to her party cadre to sink differences and work for the victory of the Grand Alliance in 2019. She was addressing RJD workers at Maner, 30 km from Patna, during a ‘litti choka’ (a Bihar delicacy) feast.

“I was simply trying to explain to my party workers by illustrating an example. And the media took it in the literal sense. Therefore, I said, I was misquoted,” said Misa, while clearing the air.

Former Rajya Sabha member and RJD vice-president Shivanand Tiwary concurred with her. “The BJP jumped up with excitement about a non-existing rift within Lalu’s family. It simply distorted the facts to portray a wrong picture of RJD and its leaders,” Tiwary told DH on Tuesday.

Tejashwi Yadav, however, preferred to remain silent on the issue saying he had not heard what his sister said. Tej Pratap, Lalu’s elder son, has gone on a pilgrimage to Kurukshetra.