Tejashwi Yadav elevated as RJD No 2: Three challenges now define the test he faces
Formally handed an organisational role for the first time, the 36-year-old promises to live up to it, announces tour of all Bihar districts after the Budget session to “listen” to party leaders and their problems
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, greets the gathering after being appointed party's working President during the national executive committee meeting, in Patna. (PTI) Barely two months after the RJD’s worst Assembly performance in over a decade which saw its tally falling from 80 seats in 2020 to 25, the party on Sunday appointed Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as its national working president, elevating him to the second-most powerful organisational position after party chief Lalu Prasad.
The decision to elevate Tejashwi was taken unanimously at a meeting of the RJD’s national executive, attended by senior leaders including former Chief Minister Rabri Devi and Pataliputra MP Misa Bharati. The proposal to appoint Tejashwi was moved by Lalu’s trusted aide Bhola Yadav and was accepted without objection.
Tejashwi will also continue as Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Bihar Assembly, but with the new role, he is set to steer the party’s affairs as Lalu remains largely inactive due to health reasons. This is the first time Tejashwi, 36, has been assigned a formal organisational position since entering politics nearly 15 years ago.
Accepting the responsibility, the LoP said he was “overwhelmed” by the confidence reposed in him. “I have been in politics for close to 15 years, but I have not held any organisational role so far. I will try to live up to the onerous responsibility that has been given to me,” he said.
In a brief address, Lalu Prasad appealed to party leaders to stand firmly behind his younger son. “Tejashwi has been working very hard. I thank you all for supporting him. Please continue to support him,” he said.
Referring to the party’s debacle in the 2025 Assembly elections, Tejashwi echoed senior leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui. “Beeti taahi bisariye, aage to sudhi ley (let bygones be bygones and focus on the road ahead),” he said, adding that after the Budget session, which begins on February 2, he would tour all districts, meet party leaders and candidates who lost the elections, and listen to their concerns. He concluded on an optimistic note: “Hum honge kaamyab (We shall overcome).”
Challenges before Tejashwi
Beyond rebuilding a demoralised cadre, Tejashwi’s immediate political test will be to keep the Mahagathbandhan intact. The challenge comes amid visible unease within the Congress, the RJD’s principal ally. Senior Bihar Congress leader Shakil Ahmad Khan has openly urged the party high command to sever ties with the RJD, arguing that the alliance has constrained the Congress’s growth in the state.
As national working president, Tejashwi will now carry the onus of keeping the Congress leadership in good humour, while also ensuring that smaller allies such as the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and the Indian Inclusive Party (IIP) remain motivated enough to stay within the Opposition fold.
Another key challenge before Tejashwi is to recast the RJD’s line of attack against the Nitish Kumar-led state government, both inside and outside the legislature. The party’s dominant narrative in recent years that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is no longer in control of the administration failed to gain traction and fell flat in the last Assembly polls.
Party leaders privately conceded that Tejashwi would need to rethink strategy and come up with a more compelling, possibly out-of-the-box, political pitch to regain lost ground.
Equally important will be the task of shedding the RJD’s long-standing “M-Y (Muslim-Yadav)” tag. With the party’s electoral base shrinking, the leadership faces pressure to project a more assimilative brand of politics, one in which its core Yadav support base appears accommodative towards Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) and Scheduled Castes.
Family feud continues
The elevation has also laid bare internal family fissures that have occasionally surfaced in recent years. The first public note of dissent came from Rohini Acharya, Lalu’s second daughter, who has been at odds with the party leadership since before last year’s Assembly polls.
In a post on X in Hindi, Rohini described her brother’s elevation as “the drawing of curtains on the glorious innings of a towering man of politics”, a reference to her father. She congratulated Tejashwi for becoming a “shehzada (prince)” and alleged that he would now function as a “puppet in the hands of sycophants and conspirators.”
Rohini’s remarks underline the sibling rivalry that made headlines in the run-up to the elections last year. While Tejashwi has emerged as the unquestioned political heir and principal face of the RJD, Rohini — who had briefly been projected as a potential electoral challenger in Saran — has accused party insiders of marginalising her and diluting her father’s political legacy.
In contrast, Misa sought to play down the family feud. “I have not read what she (Rohini) has said. I wish Tejashwi all the best,” she said. “It is good that the party now has both a national president and a national working president. Tejashwi will work with renewed vigour to strengthen the party.”
Share
