New Delhi: Former Bihar minister and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s estranged son Tej Pratap Yadav lost his Mahua Assembly seat in the Bihar elections, with the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas)’s candidate Sanjay Kumar winning by a huge margin.
Tej Pratap, the Janshakti Janata Dal chief, came third behind Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Mukesh Kumar Raushan who garnered 42,644 votes. Sanjay Kumar Singh of LJP (Ram Vilas) polled 87,641 votes, winning the election by 44,997 votes.
Amit Kumar of the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen got 15,783 votes, ending at the fourth position.
Tej Pratap, the eldest son of Lalu Yadav, had expressed confidence of winning the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) stronghold. This is the same constituency from where he won in 2015 by a margin of 28,000-plus votes.
In early rounds of counting Friday, Tej Pratap was languishing at the fourth spot in the constituency in Vaishali district with 4,941 votes. Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas)’s Sanjay Kumar was leading with 22,703 votes after seven rounds of counting at 12.35 pm.
Tej Pratap (37) was banished from the RJD and the family in May. He launched his own party—Janshakti Janata DalfI. The bitterness has remained since then, with his younger brother Tejashwi Yadav campaigning against him in Mahua.
In return, Tej Pratap landed in Tejashwi’s Raghopur constituency to campaign for his nominee Prem Kumar Yadav. While Tejashwi reminded voters to be loyal to the party and not the family, Tej Pratap made an emotional appeal to his voters, casting himself as the elder brother who was wronged with harsh punishment.
“He is still a child. After the elections, we’ll hand him a rattle… If he goes to our area, we’ll go to his area too. Then we’ll go to Raghopur,” the elder brother had said regarding Tejashwi campaigning against him in Mahua.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav had expelled Tej Pratap from the party for six years. “Ignoring moral values in personal life weakens our collective struggle for social justice,” Lalu Prasad Yadav wrote in an X post. The “activities, public conduct, and irresponsible behavior” of his eldest son were not in accordance with family values and traditions, he added.
The move came after a Facebook post from Tej Pratap’s account showed him with a woman. The caption said that he had been in a relationship with her for 12 years. The post was quickly deleted, with Tej Pratap claiming that his social media account had been hacked and his photos had been improperly edited to harass and defame him and his family members.
Following this, Tej Pratap went on to form a coalition of five smaller parties under ‘Team Tej Pratap’. He later launched his party, the JJD, and declared himself the national president of the party.
The JJD had fielded candidates in 43 Yadav-dominated constituencies. It won none.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also Read: Why Bihar polls saw highest ever women voter turnout