Tej Pratap asks Tejashwi to rethink on Sheohar nominees, goes campaigning for Misa

Tej Pratap Yadav on Tuesday asked his younger sibling Tejashwi Prasad Yadav to consider changing the RJD candidate from Sheohar Faisal Ali, who, he alleged, had close links with BJP leaders.

The former health minister also shared snapshots of Ali celebrating Holi festival with union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. “Ali has close links with BJP leaders. In such a situation, how can RJD, which is going to the polls with a call to drive away Narendra Modi and communal forces, have a candidate whose  credentials are suspect,” he asked.  

Tej Pratap, however, did a U-turn on his previous announcement that he would contest against his father-in-law Chandrika Rai as an Independent in Saran Lok Sabha constituency if the party did not replace him with Rabri Devi on the “family’s tradtional seat”.

“I will not contest from Saran. I will not campaign there,” he said. “Koi jeete, koi hare, koi pharak nahi parta (whoever wins, or loses, it doesn’t matter to me)”.

The elder son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who had displayed signs of rebellion and  formed Lalu Rabri Morcha after the party ignored his recommendations for Jehanabad and Sheohar seats, made it a point to hand over ”swords” to his ‘choice candidates’, Chandra Prakash and Angesh Singh.

By handing over the swords to Prakash and Singh, who failed to figure in the list of RJD nominees, before embarking on a campaign trip to Maner (in Patliputra) for sister Misa Bharti, Tej Pratap indicated he would back them as Independent candidates in their fight against official nominees in Jehanabad and Sheohar.

Locked in a battle for a greater say in party affairs, Tej Pratap said his role was to keep the party intact. “Tejashwi is my Arjun, but people around him are playing the role of Duryodhan and trying to sow seeds of difference in the family for serving their own ends. I will see the party is flushed clean of such elements,” he said.

Tej Pratap, despite his blow-hot-blow-cold approach and growing isolation in RJD’s scheme of things, has stopped short of burning the bridge, terming father Lalu Prasad as his ‘bhagwaan’ and RJD as his only home on more occasions than one. He has, however, kept everybody guessing.