A brewing family feud surrounding RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav scaled new heights over the weekend — with multiple members ‘disowning’ each other. Controversy had erupted soon after the Bihar election results as Rohini Acharya declared that she was quitting politics and lashed out at her family.
“I feel fortunate to have parents like mine. In a family, why is it that only daughters are expected to make sacrifices, especially when there are brothers? When questions were asked of the brothers, they told me to go to my in-laws’ house. As a result, I have decided to disown my brother (Tejashwi),” a Times of India article later quoted her as telling reporters.
Rohini has repeatedly lauded Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi for “standing by her” and revealed that her parents and sisters had been crying for her during the recent face-off. She had laid blame squarely with “Tejashwi Yadav, Sanjay Yadav, Rachel Yadav, and Rameez” for the debacle.
Widening family rifts
“I am quitting politics and I am disowning my family. This is what Sanjay Yadav and Rameez had asked me to do, and I am taking all the blame…I don’t have a family. You should go and ask Tejashwi Yadav, Sanjay Yadav, and Rameez. They are the ones who threw me out of the family,” Acharya had said in separate comments soon after the election drubbing.
Later posts and media bytes alleged that she had been subjected to filthy abuses and accused of taking ‘crores of rupees’ to donate a kidney to her father. Acharya said someone had even attempted to hit her with a slipper during the confrontation which involved two close aides of Tejashwi Yadav.
“Yesterday, I was cursed at and told that I am dirty, and that I got my father to have my dirty kidney transplanted into him, took crores of rupees, bought a ticket, and then got that dirty kidney put in…I did what I did to save my god, my father, and today it’s been called dirty. May none of you ever make a mistake like mine,” she wrote in Hindi.
According to multiple reports, three others daughters of the RJD chief have left the family home in Patna following the outburst from Acharya. Rajlakshmi, Ragini, and Chanda reportedly exited their Patna home with their children before travelling to Delhi on Sunday. The developments also come mere months after the expulsion of Tej Pratap Yadav from the RJD.
Tej Pratap issues warning
The allegations have also drawn a sharp response from her elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav. Acharya had campaigned for Tejashwi Yadav during the recent polls but reportedly remained ‘unhappy’ over the ouster of Tej Pratap. The eldest son of Lalu Prasad Yadav had been expelled from the party in May this year over “irresponsible behaviour” and failing to conform to probity and family values.
He posted a blistering message in support of Acharya on Monday — warning that “Lord Krishna’s Sudarshan Chakra would strike” anyone trying to humiliate his sister.
“As a woman, as a mother, as a sister, what she has done is commendable, and is rare,” he said.
“Listen traitors, if you attack our family, the people of Bihar will never forgive you,” he warned through the official Instagram handle of his party Janshakti Janata Dal.