After Bihar poll rout, RJD rifts deepen as Lalu’s daughter Rohini Acharya targets Tejashwi aides

The timing of her announcement was significant as the Bihar poll results saw the NDA storming back to power, with the RJD’s tally plunging to 25 seats from 75 seats it had secured in the 2020 elections.

A doctor by training, Acharya, who largely stayed out of active politics until recent years, had chosen to become a homemaker and settled with her husband in Singapore.

Acharya did not elaborate what Sanjay Yadav and Rameez had said to her. They were not available for comments.

A Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Yadav has been a close aide of RJD leader and Lalu’s younger son Tejashwi Yadav, who spearheaded the party’s campaign in the elections. Rameez is said to be a long-time friend of Tejashwi, who belongs to a political family from Uttar Pradesh.

Acharya’s announcement came amid growing discord within the RJD’s first family, which has become more apparent in recent months.

Last month, she was in the news when she unfollowed both Lalu and Tejashwi on X, which was widely interpreted as a sign of conflict in their family. Her move had followed her social media posts criticising Sanjay Yadav’s rising influence within the RJD.

Acharya had made headlines in 2022 when she donated a kidney to her father Lalu, who underwent kidney treatment in Singapore.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the RJD fielded her from the Saran constituency, where she was defeated by BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy by over 13,600 votes.

There was speculation that Acharya was upset over the expulsion of her elder brother, Tej Pratap Yadav, from the RJD and the Lalu family in May this year – following a social media post indicating his “long relationship” with a woman – but she had publicly supported Tejashwi during the election campaign.

Despite these public shows of unity, the internal rifts within the Lalu family seemed to have deepened. Even though Acharya had said before the elections that she had no ambition to contest from any Assembly seat, RJD sources said she wanted to have her say in the selection of the party’s candidates in the Assembly seats coming under the Saran parliamentary constituency.

“Her idea was to cultivate Saran from where she could contest again in the 2029 Lok Sabha polls but Tejashwi and Sanjay Yadav apparently shot it down,” RJD sources said. “As Lalu Prasad declined to intervene in the matter, Acharya had left Patna for Singapore, unfollowing all RJD leaders including her father and brother on social media. Her decision to quit politics has a lot to do with Tejashwi being surrounded by his coterie and Lalu keeping himself out of infighting among his children.”

Ahead of the Assembly elections, tensions in the RJD had flared up when Acharya reposted a message on social media that criticised Sanjay’s prominent position during Tejashwi’s “Bihar Adhikar Yatra”.

The post said the front seat in the yatra bus should have been reserved for either Lalu or Tejashwi, not for any other individual, even in their absence. This led to public criticism of Rohini within the family, though she later sought to clarify her stance by emphasising the importance of social justice and the representation of Dalit leaders in the party’s activities.

Acharya’s criticism of Sanjay also pointed to a broader discontent within the RJD regarding his role in shaping Tejashwi’s political roadmap.

Following his expulsion from the Lalu family and the RJD, Tej Pratap went on to float his outfit, Janshakti Janata Dal (JJD), which also contested the Assembly polls but drew a blank.