Drama with eye on polls: Tej Pratap's estranged wife on his expulsion from RJD

Patna: RJD president Lalu Prasad's estranged daughter-in-law Aishwarya claimed on Monday that expulsion of her husband Tej Pratap Yadav from the party was a "drama" enacted with an eye on upcoming Bihar assembly polls.

Talking to reporters here, a day after Prasad expelled his elder son Tej Pratap from the party for six years and snapped all family ties with him, Aishwarya also charged her in-laws with ruining her life by getting her married to the deviant scion.

"This drama has been enacted keeping the elections in mind. I don't think there has been any rift. They are all in cahoots. I am sure, yesterday too, Rabri Devi (mother-in-law) must have tried to console him (Tej Pratap) by wiping his tears and assuring him that all things will be sorted out", said a visibly embittered Aishwarya.

The couple had tied the knot in 2018, but after a few months, she left her in-laws' house alleging physical and emotional torture.

Notably, the action against her estranged husband followed a social media post in which he confessed to have been "in a relationship, for 12 years" with a woman.

The Facebook post has since been deleted and Yadav took to X later to claim that the page had been "hacked" to "defame" him and his family.

When Aishwarya was asked about the post, she remarked indignantly "So, he himself says he is in a relationship with someone else. Was it not known to his family members. Why did Lalu ji, Rabri ji and Tejashwi ji (younger son and heir apparent) got me married to such a person? My life has been ruined".

Asked whether, during the few months that they spent together, she had an inkling of her husband's affair with another woman, she shot back "How could it have been so? You can gauge my condition from the fact that I learnt about my husband having filed a divorce petition from reports in the media".

Referring to Prasad's statement that he could not tolerate his elder son's waywardness as it "weakens our fight for social justice", Aishwarya, whose late grandfather Daroga Prasad Rai was former chief minister of Bihar, asked, "When will I get justice? Expressing disgust over her husband's claim that their divorce petition was hanging fire because she was demanding a hefty sum by way of alimony, she said: "It shows a mindset in which the entire blame is pinned on the woman. I do not wish to speak about the matter as it is in court. But I am going to fight it out".

Meanwhile, Prasad and Rabri Devi were tight-lipped when their comments were sought by journalists at the airport, where they had reached to board a flight to Kolkata.

Their eldest daughter Misa Bharti, the MP from Pataliputra, accompanied her parents and she told reporters "The national president of our party has made his stand clear. We have nothing more to add".