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After son Tej Pratap, daughter Rohini: What's the Lalu Yadav family feud?
Rohini Acharya sent mixed signals about her position within the family and the party, in the months leading up to the polls. Yet, she campaigned for Tejashwi.
Rohini Acharya, Lalu Prasad Yadav's daughter, dropped a bombshell just hours after his party Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) suffered a crushing defeat in the Bihar Assembly elections. Rohini on Saturday announced she was quitting politics and severing ties with the family.
Here are five key facts explaining the Lalu Prasad Yadav family feud:
Rohini Acharya quits politics and announces she is “disowning” her family
Rohini Acharya stunned the political establishment when she posted on X that she was not only quitting politics but also “disowning” her own family.
The declaration came a day after the RJD suffered a sharp fall in its seat tally - dropping from 75 seats earlier to around 25 this time.
Rohini is not a routine political figure; she is a doctor by training, settled in Singapore, who gained nationwide respect after donating a kidney to Lalu Prasad Yadav.
She had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Saran last year, and despite her relatively limited electoral experience, she was considered an emotional and influential voice in the party.
Her abrupt and personal announcement has therefore added shock value to an already bad week for the RJD.
Blames Tejashwi Yadav aides Sanjay Yadav and Rameez
In her cryptic post, Rohini said, “This is what Sanjay Yadav and Rameez had asked me to do…and I am taking all the blame.”
Sanjay Yadav is an RJD Rajya Sabha MP and considered one of Tejashwi Yadav’s most trusted aides. Rameez, meanwhile, is known to be Tejashwi’s old friend from a political family in Uttar Pradesh.
While Rohini did not explain what exactly the two asked her to do, her public naming of them has triggered questions about internal power struggles around Tejashwi.
Neither Sanjay nor Rameez have commented, deepening the mystery and fuelling speculation about pressures within the party and family circles.
First Tej Pratap, then Rohini
Rohini Yadav's announcement comes months after Lalu’s elder son, Tej Pratap Yadav, was expelled from both the family and the party.
Tej Pratap's expulsion followed a controversy over a Facebook post in which he claimed to be in a relationship, reigniting public debate about his past marital tensions and his ongoing divorce case with Aishwarya Rai.
After his expulsion, he formed his own party, the Janshakti Janta Dal (JJD), and contested the Mahua assembly seat, where he finished a distant third.
Many within political circles believe Rohini was angry about Tej Pratap’s humiliation. Though she campaigned for Tejashwi ahead of the election, her latest post indicates unresolved tensions may have continued to simmer beneath the surface.
RJD's woes refuse to end
The family tensions have burst into the open just a day after the RJD faced a humiliating electoral setback. Contesting more than 143 seats, the party managed to win only 25, finishing far behind the NDA, which swept the election with 202 seats.
The BJP emerged with 89 seats, the JD(U) with 85, and smaller allies also performed strongly. In contrast, the Mahagathbandhan - comprising the RJD, Congress and Left allies - collapsed, managing only about 35 seats in total.
The scale of the defeat delivered a major blow to Tejashwi Yadav’s leadership and likely intensified internal blame games within the party and the family.
Rohini's conflicting signals before exit
In the months leading up to the elections, Rohini Acharya sent mixed signals about her position within the family and the party.
At one point, she unfollowed all political figures and family members on social media, accusing some people of spreading misinformation about her.
She even issued public challenges, defending the authenticity of her kidney donation to her father and warning detractors to apologise.
Yet, during the elections she campaigned for Tejashwi, posted birthday wishes praising him, and appeared to support the party line.
Her sudden announcement of quitting politics and disowning the family therefore seems to contradict her recent public stance, suggesting a deeper rupture that had been building quietly.
With both Tej Pratap expelled and now Rohini withdrawing from the family, the internal strife in the Lalu Yadav household has spilled dramatically into public view.
