In the wake of his party’s dismal performance in the Bihar assembly elections, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav reportedly told the newly elected MLAs that they were free to elect someone else as the legislative party leader.
However, his father and party patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav quickly intervened and said he should continue to lead the party in the assembly, the Times of India reported on Tuesday, quoting a party legislator.
"Tejashwi ji was emotional. He gave us the option to elect anyone else as RJD legislative party leader," the unnamed MLA told the newspaper.
The RJD leader also took a veiled jibe at his sister Rohini Acharya, who had accused him of misbehaviour, saying he had been asked to deny a ticket to “someone” to contest the polls.
Tejashwi was elected RJD legislative party leader at a meeting of the newly elected MLAs on Monday. Besides Lalu Prasad, his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi and their eldest daughter and party MP Misa Bharti were present at the meeting.
Yadav, the leader of the opposition in the outgoing assembly, was the chief ministerial candidate of the Mahagathbandhan in the polls. The RJD won 25 out of the 143 seats it contested in the assembly elections.
A day after the election results were announced on Friday, the party’s first family plunged into a deep turmoil with Rohini announcing that she was "quitting politics" and "disowning her family".
In a series of social media posts, she held two close aides of Tejashwi—Sanjay Yadav and Rameez—responsible for the party’s debacle in the polls.
In one of the posts, Rohini alleged that she was abused, humiliated and threatened by her family members, and said she had to endure this insult as she was not ready to compromise on her self-respect.
The 46-year-old said that her family members had claimed that she had taken crores of rupees and a ticket to contest the election after donating her “dirty kidney” to her father. |
