‘Elect anyone else’: Tejashwi Yadav’s offer to step down shocks RJD amid escalating family feud
According to the MLA’s current statement, Tejashwi looked visibly distressed as he told his colleagues that they can replace him if they believe he will help the organization bounce back from its poor performance.
A legislator recalled him saying “they have the option of electing someone else as the RJD legislative party leader” and even touched on internal pressures on ticket distribution. He reportedly asked, “What should I do? Do I see the party? Or the family?”
RJD faces its losses and turns its anger on EVMs
The moment prompted immediate intervention by RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who urged lawmakers to keep Tejashwi at the helm of the House of Representatives. Thereupon, the MLAs unanimously re-elected him as the leader of the party in the assembly. Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti and Tejashwi’s close aide Sanjay Yadav (whose name has come to the fore in the ongoing family conflict) were also present.
The meeting also reviewed the sharp decline of the party in the elections. The RJD won only 25 of the 143 seats it contested; this placed a distant third, marking a sharp turnaround from 2020.
Senior leader Jagadanand Singh declared that the defeat was due to manipulation of voting machines. “Democracy will be mocked until the time machine (EVM) comes out. These machines have been misused,” he said. Echoing him, MLA Bhai Birendra said, “We must fight against EVMs. We demand that elections be held using ballot papers.”
Rohini Acharya’s harsh accusations intensify turmoil
Tejashwi’s emotional remarks came amid an extraordinary public outburst over the weekend by his sister Rohini Acharya, who accused members of her brother’s circle of spreading rumors that he had donated a “bad” kidney to Lalu Prasad “in exchange for millions of rupees and a party ticket”.
Rohini, who was living in Singapore when her father underwent an organ transplant three years ago, alleged that she was pushed out of her home by Tejashwi, Sanjay Yadav and Rameez, her close friend from her brother’s cricketing years. The day before, he had announced that he was “leaving politics and rejecting my family.”
“A lot of abuse was heaped on me yesterday and I was accused of donating my defective kidney to my father in exchange for millions of rupees and a party ticket,” said Rohini.
She added that I will tell all married women not to do anything to save their parents and if they have a brother, ask him to donate his own kidney or ask his Haryanavi friend to do the same.
Her posts expressed pain at her sacrifice: “I committed a sin by donating my kidney without getting my husband’s or mother-in-law’s approval or considering my three children… no girl should face Rahini’s fate.”
She also claimed that she was verbally abused and nearly assaulted.
“Even though I was a married woman and a mother, abuse was hurled at me and a slipper was taken to throw at me,” Lalu’s daughter said, adding that she left “between sobs, abandoning my family and sisters”.
The party’s demand for accountability after its loss had soured relations, he told reporters before flying to Delhi on Saturday.
Rohini also criticized Sanjay Yadav and Rameez, calling them self-proclaimed strategists who reject the contributions of grassroots employees. His father-in-law, former MP Rizwan Zaheer, amplified a post describing Rameez, who is in jail in a murder case, as a “criminal gangster, a murder suspect working for Sanjay Yadav”.
