Tejashwi appointed RJD working president amid sister’s sharp sarcasm

Addressing the national executive meeting after being appointed as national working president, Tejashwi said that he would discharge his responsibilities with sincerity and also announced that he would undertake a statewide tour after the Holi festival

In a move that formally anoints him as the heir apparent of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, Leader of the Opposition in Bihar assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav was unanimously elected as the working president at the party’s national executive meeting here on Sunday.

Newly appointed RJD national president Tejashwi Yadav receiving certificate from RJD chief Lalu Prasad during the party’s national executive meeting at Hotel Maurya in Patna on Sunday. (Santosh Kumar/HT)

The decision was taken in presence of ailing RJD chief, Tejashwi and senior leaders including Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharti. With the 77-year-old Lalu’s health restricting his mobility and public engagements, the appointment effectively hands day-to-day control of the party to his younger son.

Addressing the national executive meeting after being appointed as national working president, Tejashwi said that he would discharge his responsibilities with sincerity and also announced that he would undertake a statewide tour after the Holi festival.

“In the Bihar elections, people were defeated and the (government) machinery emerged victorious,” Yadav said, implying that the Opposition’s RJD-led INDIA bloc suffered a defeat because of misuse of official machinery and other resources allegedly used by the ruling NDA.

To buttress his point, Yadav said in the initial counting of postal ballot of the Bihar polls, RJD and its alllies were leading in 107 seats whereas in the counting of votes of EVMs, the NDA got victorious.

The 36-year- old Yadav had come to politics in 2013 after spending several years playing cricket. Yadav became a MLA and subsequently became deputy chief minister in the Mahagathbandhan government in 2015 after assembly polls.

Reacting on the appointment of Yadav as working president, senior leader and MLC Abdul Bari Siddiqui said: “Lalu ji can no longer go village-to-village the way he used to. We don’t want him to either, given his condition. Tejashwi will now travel across the country in that role and strengthen the organisation.”

Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Yadav described the choice as unanimous and said that the party would carry forward “Lalu ji’s sacrifice and ideology” under Tejashwi’s leadership.

Tejashwi’s elevation comes less than three months after the Mahagathbandhan’s poor showing in the state assembly polls, where the 36-year-old Tejashwi was the alliance’s chief ministerial face. A day before the meeting, he had told the party workers at the RJD office that he intended to overhaul the organisation from the booth level upwards.Yet the family fault lines, already visible, widened further within hours of the announcement.

Lalu Prasad’s daughter Rohini Acharya, who had posted a stinging criticism of the party’s current leadership just before the meeting, returned to X soon after Tejashwi’s elevation with a sharply sarcastic message.“Siyaasat ke shikhar-purush ki gauravshaali paari ka ek tarah se patakshep, Thakursuhaati karne waalon aur ‘giroh-e-ghuspaith’ ko unke haathon ki ‘kathputli bane shahzaada’ ki taajposhi mubaarak..,” she wrote.

The post appeared to mock Tejashwi’s new position as the “coronation” of a “prince” turned “puppet” of “infiltrators” and those who “please the Thakurs” — a clear dig at allies of the younger brother and, by extension, at the perceived dilution of Lalu’s core social justice legacy.

Earlier in the day, Rohini had alleged that the party’s real command had slipped into the hands of “infiltrators and conspirators” whose only aim was to destroy “Laluvad”. She had also claimed that those who spoke up for the party’s interests faced rude behaviour.

Misa Bharti, the eldest sister and Patliputra MP who was herself considered a contender for a larger organisational role, chose conciliation. “It is a happy occasion for the party and workers that we have a working president now,” she said. She added that Tejashwi had addressed the meeting on the need to strengthen the organisation down to every booth and that all leaders and workers would extend full cooperation.

The Yadav family’s internal tensions are no secret. Elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav, who made his electoral debut alongside Tejashwi in 2015, was expelled from the RJD last year — a decision widely seen as driven by the younger sibling’s desire for a more streamlined image.

Tej Pratap has since formed his own Janshakti Janata Dal, which has so far failed to gain traction. After the Assembly poll defeat, Rohini had briefly announced she was quitting politics and “disowning” the family, blaming certain leaders close to Tejashwi for the debacle. As Lalu Prasad steps back due to illness, Tejashwi now assumes operational charge of the party his father built over decades — even as fresh barbs from within the family underscore the challenges ahead.