Tej Pratap Yadav.
Credit: x/@TejYadav14
Patna: Call it a war within Lalu Prasad’s parivar. Or, a ‘Mahabharat’ between the self-proclaimed Krishna (Tej Pratap Yadav) and Arjun (Tejashwi Yadav). The battlefield of Mahua in Vaishali is drawing as much attention as Raghopur, which too incidentally is in the same district.
However, there is a major difference between the two constituencies.
While Raghopur is looking to elect the Lalu-Rabri heir apparent, Tejashwi Yadav, who could be the Bihar CM if the Mahagathbandhan is voted to power, Mahua is in the news after Lalu’s elder son Tej Pratap, expelled from the RJD as well as the family, entered the fray as his newly-floated outfit Janshakti Janata Dal (JJD) nominee.
Stark contrast
While both the brothers, now at war, are contesting from Vaishali in the Bihar Assembly Elections 2025, the contrast is quite palpable.
When Tejashwi filed his nomination papers, he was flanked by his father and RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his mother and former CM Rabri Devi and elder sister Misa Bharti, a Lok Sabha MP from Pataliputra.
However, when Tej Pratap submitted his nomination papers, not one member from Lalu-Rabri family deemed it fit to accompany him.
“The RJD, as well as Lalu ji’s family now treat Tej Pratap as a pariah. And Tej Pratap is himself to be blamed for the mess,” explained an RJD insider who has worked closely with the two brothers.
“Ever since he first became an MLA from Mahua in 2015 (and then again from Hasanpur in Samastipur in 2020), he has remained in the news for all the wrong reasons.
His latest social media post few months back, where he confessed of being involved with his girl friend for the last 12 years, even though his petition for divorce (with estranged wife Aishwarya Rai) is pending in the court of law, was the last straw, before being thrown out of the party as well as the family,” the RJD leader averred.
Rabri's soft-corner
Amid all these war within Lalu’s parivar, Rabri who has a soft-corner for elder son Tej Pratap, is silently backing him in Mahua, even though Tejashwi Yadav has fielded an RJD candidate Mukesh Raushan from the constituency against Tej Pratap.
Mukesh, who is the sitting RJD MLA in the outgoing Assembly, explains to his voters why it is necessary to defeat Tej Pratap. “This election will make Tejashwi as CM. Therefore, it's important that you help each and every RJD candidate, including that of Mahua, win,” says Mukesh.
With the animosity between two brothers showing no sign of rapprochement, Tej Pratap himself slammed the door. “Will prefer death over returning to the RJD,” said Tej Pratap, anguished over the treatment meted out to him by his father’s pocket organisation.
However, news pouring in from Mahua suggest that there is a silent sympathy wave for Tej Pratap, who is locked in a four-cornered contest with Mukesh of the RJD, Dr Parveen (a doctor by profession and a friend of Dr Misa Bharti and daughter of Lalu’s aide and former minister Illiyas Hussain) as Independent, and the NDA candidate Sanjay Singh.
“A vote for Tej Pratap, and not to the RJD candidate, also means a vote for Lalu ji, as the two warring brothers will eventually bury the hatchet and he will be re-inducted into the family soon after polls,” is the common refrain at Mahua.
November 14, the counting day, will clear the Mahua mist.