The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) suffered a setback on Saturday when President Lalu Prasad Yadav's daughter Rohini Acharya announced she was "quitting politics" and cutting connections with her family. This happened just a day after the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan suffered a crushing defeat in the Bihar Assembly elections. The opposition alliance won only 35 seats in the 243-member state Assembly.
“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,” she wrote in an X post.
Sanjay Yadav is the Rajya Sabha MP from RJD and one of the most trusted aides of Tejashwi Yadav, the son and heir apparent of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.
Rameez is said to be Tejashwi's old friend who hails from a political family in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, PTI reported.
Last month, the divide among Lalu's family members became public after Acharya unfollowed her father and brother Tejashwi on the social media platform X, the Indian Express reported.
This happened shortly after she echoed criticism of Sanjay Yadav, who was accused of gaining power within the party at the expense of others. Aside from being a member of the RJD first family, Acharya is a qualified doctor who opted to become a homemaker and settled with her Singapore-based husband. She made headlines a few years ago after donating a kidney to her father, and she unsuccessfully stood for the Lok Sabha from Saran last year.
The RJD's seat tally slipped to 24 from 75 in the Bihar assembly polls.
The ruling NDA decimated the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar on Friday to retain power, reaffirming Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's enduring appeal and dealing a body blow to the Congress and ally RJD.