Tej alleges bid in RJD to create rift with brother

Patna: RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav on Saturday sought action against elements in the party out to create fissures between him and younger brother Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.

Tejashwi, who was the deputy CM in the Nitish Kumar-led RJD-JD (U)-Congress government that remained in the office from October 2015 to July 2017, is currently Leader of Opposition in the state legislative Assembly. Tej was the health and forest minister in the government. The two brothers are first-time MLAs.

Tej said people in the party were not listening to him. “Tejashwi is like part of of my heart, but there are anti-social elements who want to create a fight between brothers… They want to destroy the party and Laluji although they won’t succeed,” he said in a video posted on his official Twitter handle and added such nefarious elements should be shown the door.

Sources said Tej was ostensibly miffed over the delay in giving a party position to close aide Rajendra Paswan, who was finally appointed the party’s state general secretary a couple of days ago.

“He (Rajendra) is a dalit. We talk about the welfare of dalits… Certain party people don’t listen to me and say they’ve been asked by senior functionaries not to do so (not to heed my suggestion),” Tej told reporters.

Party sources explained Rajendra’s appointment was delayed because of the delay in constitution of committees that approves such appointments.

Tej, 29, also tweeted RJD and its alliance parties were faced with a major challenge ahead of the general election in 2019 and they should be alert against anti-social elements trying to create a divide among them.

In another tweet, Tej referred to the ‘Mahabharat’ and said he wished to leave Hastinapur for Arjun (Tejashwi) and went on leave, foiling the Sanghi (RSS) plot. Yet, few people are worrying that he would be known as the kingmaker, he added.

Though RJD leaders refused to come on record, a response to Tej’s tweet came from a twitter handle in the name of Tej’s mother and former CM Rabri Devi. It sought to pacify Tej, saying he should take a bigger role than a kingmaker in defeating the ruling NDA alliance. TOI could not verfy immediately if it was actually Rabri’s twitter handle.

Tejashwi has been virtually helming the RJD ever since Lalu was jailed in Ranchi following his conviction in fodder scam cases on December 23 last. He has also been declared the CM face of the Grand Alliance of RJD, Congress and HAM for the 2020 assembly election.

Just a month ago on May 12, Tej tied the knot with former Bihar CM Daroga Prasad Rai’s granddaughter and former minister Chandrika Rai’s daughter Aishwarya Rai at a lavish ceremony in Patna.

Courtesy: TNN