A day after the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was routed in the Bihar assembly polls, party president Lalu Prasad’s daughter Rohini Acharya on Saturday announced that she was quitting politics and her family.
In a surprise post on X, Acharya attributed her decision to the party’s Rajya Sabha lawmaker Sanjay Yadav and Rameez, who are considered close to the Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav.
“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.”
As reported by HT, people in the RJD feigned ignorance about what prompted Acharya to post the message on her X handle, but said that the 46-year-old homemaker-turned-politician’s face-off with Sanjay a couple of months ago during the run-up to the state assembly polls – and the party’s subsequent debacle – may be linked to the latest episode of growing discord within the RJD’s first family.
Earlier, RJD chief Lalu Yadav’s elder son, Tej Pratap Yadav, was expelled from both the party and the family over a personal controversy.
‘Insulted, hit with chappal’
Hours after dropping the bombshell on X, Rohini Acharya also expressed her frustration to journalists at the Patna airport before boarding a flight to Delhi.
Speaking to reporters, she alleged that she had been pushed out by key members of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leadership.
“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,” she alleged.
“The whole nation is asking why the party failed like this. When you name Sanjay Yadav and Rameez, you are thrown out of the house, disgraced, abused, and even hit with a chappal (slipper),” news agency ANI quoted her as saying.
Who are Sanjay Yadav and Rameez?
According to news agency PTI, Sanjay Yadav, a Rajya Sabha MP from the RJD, is considered one of her brother Tejashwi Yadav’s closest aides.
On the other hand, Rameez Alam is an old friend of Tejashwi and comes from a political family in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.
Acharya’s previously clashes with Sanjay
Acharya, who donated one of her kidneys to her father, Lalu Prasad Yadav, in December 2022, had earlier clashed with Sanjay after objecting to him occupying the front seat of a campaign vehicle during Tejashwi’s yatra ahead of the assembly polls, as reported by HT.
There had also been speculation that Acharya, who unsuccessfully contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from the Saran seat, was upset with Tejashwi and his close aide over not being given more clout in the party.
There has been no official reaction from the RJD MP on Acharya’s post so far.
