ROHINI A ‘LONELY PLANET’?

Post November 14 results of Bihar polls, things seem to have fallen apart for both the Mahagathbandhan and Lalu Yadav’s family, the first Parivar of RJD. As if a dismal showing in the polls were not enough… and even as the MGB’s CM-face Tejashwi was nursing his injuries, his family fell apart as if like a pack of cards.

HOW A CREST AFALLEN ROHINI SPILLED THE BEANS

A day after the results in the Bihar Assembly elections in which the RJD hit rock bottom, Lalu’s daughter and Tejashwi’s sister, Rohini Acharya, announced that she was “quitting politics” and severing ties with the family. In an Instagram post, she announced: “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.”

At the Patna airport when media asked her about her post, Rohini said, “I have no family and you can go and ask this to Sanjay Yadav, Rameez, and Tejashwi Yadav. They are the ones who threw me out of the family. They do not want to take any responsibility. 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 slippers.”

Was it the dirty game of rajneeti that led to the family feud? A day after announcing her exit from both the party and her family, she took to X saying she was “cursed at” and told that she donated a “dirty kidney” to her father who required a transplantation.

On X, she wrote: Yesterday, a daughter, a sister, a married woman, a mother was humiliated, filthy abuses were hurled at her, a slipper was raised to hit her. I did not compromise on my self-respect, I did not surrender the truth, and solely because of this, I had to endure this insult… Yesterday, a daughter, out of compulsion, left behind her crying parents and sisters and came away; they tore me away from my maternal home… They left me orphaned… May none of you ever walk my path, may no family ever have a daughter-sister like Rohini.”

She further added that “sisters and daughters” should look after their own homes, and take care of their children and in-laws’ household,“without caring for their parents, think only about themselves…”.

While going through these posts and reading between the lines, it seems to be a post-poll blame game and the RJD within its ranks had to find a scapegoat. Grapevine also has it that Rohini’s salvoes and questions to Tejashwi after the dismal performance of the party was not taken kindly by brother Tejashwi.

Grapevine also has it that Sanjay Yadav had played a key role in denying her an Assembly ticket after she lost the 2024 Lok Sabha poll from Saran seat.

Other quarters also feel that even after the daughter who gifted a kidney to dad Lalu had struck a chord with the RJD base… people like Sanjay were wary of her presence and feared that she would in no time triumph over Tejashwi in the political race especially within the family and thereby in the party ranks. This could be another reasons which may have triggered the disgraceful exit of Rohini.

Cracks in Lalu family are not new. In May this year, the RJD supremo cracked the whip and expelled his eldest son Tej Pratap Yadav from the party and family.

Taking to X, Lalu said, “Ignoring moral values in personal life weakens our collective struggle for social justice. The activities, public conduct and irresponsible behavior of the eldest son are not in accordance with our family values and traditions. Therefore, due to the above circumstances, I remove him from the party and family. From now on, he will not have any role of any kind in the party and family. He is expelled from the party for 6 years.”

“He is capable of seeing the good and bad and merits and demerits ofhis personal life. All those who will have relations with him should take their own decisions. I have always been an advocate of public shame in public life. The obedient members of the family have adopted and followed this idea in public life,” he added.

Now, months later… reacting to Rohini’s emotional messages, Tej reacted saying, “I tolerated what happened to me. But the insult inflicted on my sister is unbearable under any circumstance.”

Meanwhile, speaking on his family matters, Lalu Prasad said at a meeting of party legislators in Patna that unanimously selected younger son Tejashwi Yadav as the leader of the RJD legislative party, “This is an internal family matter and will be resolved within the family. I am there to deal with it.”

Apparently, tension within the Parivar first became apparent during the Bihar Adhikar Yatra in the run-up to the elections, when Rohini Acharya objected to Tejashwi’s advisor, Sanjay Yadav, sitting in the front seat beside him.

The row has spiralled into wider complaints about alleged interference by Sanjay Yadav and his aide Rameez Nemat Khan in both family and party matters. Lalu Prasad’s brother-inlaw Sadhu Yadav also attacked Tejashwi Yadav’s ‘arrogance,’ calling Rohini Acharya’s treatment ‘unjust’ & urging the removal of the two aides to prevent further trouble. Maintaining that she “hasn’t lied about anything,” as reflected in her posts on X, Acharya said her father has always supported her. “I have spoken the truth. Rohini jo bolti hai sach bolti hai. You may ask Tejashwi Yadav, Sanjay Yadav, Rachel Yadav, and Rameez. My father has stood by me. My parents and sisters cried for me yesterday. “I am blessed to have parents like them,” she said. The RJD is in one of its toughest phases, with its fall from 75 to 25 seats raising sharp questions over strategy & leadership, while NDA’s rise to 202 seats has marginalised opposition. Amid the turmoil, Tejashwi now confronts fresh trouble fuelled by his sister’s allegations.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Robin Roy, The writer is Senior Journalist and former Managing Editor, First India