Subhash Yadav and Sadhu Yadav, who were powerful faces during the 15-year Lalu-Rabri rule, are now working towards ensuring that Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and his sons face defeat in the forthcoming Bihar elections. M I Khan reports.
Lalu Prasad Yadav's youngest brother-in-law, Subhash Yadav who revolted against the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief by joining Pappu Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Party on Monday, has announced that he will campaign across Bihar to ensure the defeat of the grand alliance of the RJD, Janata Dal-United and the Congress in the forthcoming polls.
"If party chief Pappu Yadav wants me to campaign in Mahua and Raghopur assembly constituencies, I will campaign there," Subhash, the youngest among the three brothers of Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi, said in Patna.
Pappu, an expelled RJD MP from the Madhepura Lok Sabha seat, has off late emerged as one of the harshest critics of Lalu. His party is fighting the polls with the Samajwadi Party, Nationalist Congress Party and two other parties as part of a ‘third front’ aimed at taking on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and the grand alliance.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time Lalu has faced rebellion within his family.
Lalu's other brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav, a controversial figure in state politics since Lalu-Rabri rule, had revolted before the last Lok Sabha polls in 2014. He formed his own party, the Janata Garib Dal-Secular, after a stint with the Congress and an unsuccessful bid to join the BJP.
Both Subhash and Sadhu were powerful faces during the 15-year rule of Lalu-Rabri (1990 to 2005).
Lalu's two sons -- Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav -- are contesting from the Mahua and Raghopur assembly seats as RJD candidates.
Tej Pratap, 27, is contesting from Mahua assembly seat and younger son Tejaswi Yadav, 25, is in fray from Raghopur.
Both Mahua and Raghopur are adjacent constituencies to Vaishali district, which is considered a stronghold of the RJD.
Lalu and his wife Rabri won several elections between 1995 and 2010 from the Raghopur seat.
Lalu’s yonger son Tejaswi, a cricketer-turned-politician, is more popular than Tej Pratap. Lalu had sent him to attend a rally with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi recently in the West Champaran district.
The BJP has fielded Satish Kumar Yadav, who joined the party hours before he was declared the party candidate to contest from Raghopur. Satish is a sitting JD-U MLA, but was denied a ticket by the party when the seat was given to the RJD as part of the grand alliance’s seat-sharing agreement.
Satish, once a close aide of Rabri, had defeated her in 2010 by 63,000 votes.
