The resounding defeat of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Mahagathbandhan in the 2025 Bihar assembly elections, which saw the RJD’s tally plummet to 25 seats, triggered a public and bitter explosion of internal family conflict, pitting Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter, Rohini Acharya, directly against her brother, Tejashwi Yadav, and his inner circle.

The feud, which had been simmering for months over the influence of Tejashwi’s aides, came to a head on Saturday, a day after the poll results, with Acharya dramatically announcing she was quitting politics and “disowning” her family.

The Blame, the Names, and the Allegations

Rohini Acharya, who gained national attention for donating a kidney to her father in 2022, escalated the conflict with a social media post and a subsequent direct confrontation with the media at Patna airport.

1. The Public Quit and Accusation: In a cryptic and sarcastic post on X, Acharya wrote:

“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.”

2. Direct Blame on Tejashwi and Aides: She later explicitly named her brother, Tejashwi Yadav, as being responsible for her expulsion from the family. Acharya stated that the confrontation began when she questioned the party’s disastrous electoral performance:

“I don’t have a family. You should go and ask Tejashwi Yadav, Sanjay Yadav, and Rameez. 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.”

3. Allegations of Abuse: Acharya made serious allegations of abuse, claiming that when she questioned the roles of Tejashwi’s aides, she was met with violence and humiliation:

“When you take the names of Sanjay Yadav and Rameez, you are thrown out of the house, disgraced, abused, and even hit with a chappal (slipper).”

The Expanding Influence: Sanjay Yadav and Rameez

The central conflict appears to stem from Acharya’s opposition to the increasing influence of two individuals close to Tejashwi Yadav:

• Sanjay Yadav: An RJD Rajya Sabha MP, he is widely recognized as Tejashwi Yadav’s senior political advisor and one of his most trusted aides. Rohini Acharya, and previously her elder brother Tej Pratap, have expressed unhappiness over Sanjay Yadav’s growing sway in party matters, viewing it as detrimental to the family’s legacy and power structure. Previous media reports indicate a prior instance where Acharya criticized Sanjay Yadav for occupying a front-row seat on a rally bus, a position usually reserved for the party’s top leadership.
• Rameez Alam: He is reportedly an old friend of Tejashwi Yadav, who looks after the RJD leader’s campaign and daily affairs. He comes from a political family in Uttar Pradesh.

Acharya’s allegations suggest that questioning the decision-making process, which she believes is dominated by these aides and Tejashwi, led directly to her expulsion from the family fold.

The Tej Pratap Angle

This public feud follows the earlier expulsion of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s elder son, Tej Pratap Yadav, from the party and family months prior over a personal controversy. Acharya’s public support for Tej Pratap, including a social media post wishing him success when he floated his own party, suggests that the internal tensions regarding Tejashwi’s leadership were shared by his siblings. The latest feud between Rohini and Tejashwi highlights the deep and open cracks within the RJD’s first family, which are now being laid bare in the wake of the party’s significant electoral defeat.