Yearender 2025: How Rift In RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's Family Split Out In The Open
The rift widened in the family of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, especially after the RJD suffered a humiliating defeat in the Bihar Assembly Polls.
By Dev Raj
Published : December 26, 2025 at 6:45 AM IST
Patna: The Bihar Assembly poll results were a debacle for former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the main opposition party in the state and a part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), also known as the Mahagathbandhan.
It notched the worst performance since 2010, when the party had managed to win just 22 seats. This time it bagged 25 seats under the leadership of his youngest son, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, to whom he has passed on the mantle.
The results not only broke the confidence of party leaders and workers, but also brought out the rift within the RJD's first family out in the open before the people, with Lalu's Singapore-based daughter Rohini Acharya challenging the leadership of Tejashwi and his team, talking about owing responsibility for the devastating defeat, and leaving her parents' home in a huff after alleging verbal abuse and physical assault.
The incident grabbed much attention and placed various pulls and pressures among Lalu's children under the public gaze. It hinted at a possibility of ruptures in the party, especially when elder son Tej Pratap Yadav already stands estranged from the family.
Lalu and his wife Rabri Devi, a former Bihar Chief Minister, got married in 1973 and raised nine children – seven daughters and two sons. All of them have carved out their separate personal and political identities.
The Lalu – Rabri Family
1. Misa Bharti – The eldest daughter. She is an MBBS and is married to Shailesh Kumar, a software engineer who runs his own company. She entered politics early and was sent to the Rajya Sabha twice after losing from the Patliputra Lok Sabha seat in 2014 and 2019. She clinched the seat in 2024 by defeating former Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav (now a minister in Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s cabinet). She has two daughters and a son.
2. Rohini Acharya – She is also a doctor and came to the limelight after donating a kidney to Lalu, who underwent a transplant at a Singapore hospital. She is married to Samaresh Singh, a computer engineer and entrepreneur, hailing from Aurangabad in Bihar. The couple is based in Singapore along with their daughter and two sons. She contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election from the Saran constituency, but lost to former Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
3. Chanda Yadav – She has studied law and is married to commercial pilot Vikram Singh. She stays away from public attention but remains active on social media in support of her family.
4. Ragini Yadav – An engineering graduate, she is the fourth daughter in the Lalu family. She is married to Rahul Yadav, a Samajwadi Party leader from Sarfabad in Noida in Uttar Pradesh.
5. Hema Yadav – She is also an engineer and is married to Vineet Yadav, a member of a political family connected to the Samajwadi Party. The couple stays in Delhi, and the husband is active in politics, while she keeps a low profile, focusing on her family.
6. Anushka ‘Dhannu’ Rao – She has studied interior design and is married to Chiranjeev Rao, son of former Haryana minister Ajay Yadav. Chiranjeev is an MLA from Rewari in Haryana.
7. Raj Lakshmi Yadav – The youngest daughter of Lalu–Rabri is married to Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, a Samajwadi Party MLA and a grandson of late Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. She also holds an MBBS degree.
8. Tej Pratap Yadav – Lalu-Rabri's eldest son. A former MLA, he is active in politics. Lalu expelled him from the RJD and the family over an extramarital affair with a girl despite being married to former Bihar Chief Minister Daroga Prasad Rai's daughter Aishwarya Rai. He formed Janshakti Janata Dal (JJD), which contested several seats in the recent Bihar Assembly elections, but lost in all.
9. Tejashwi Prasad Yadav – The youngest one among Lalu–Rabri's children. He has made a mark in Bihar politics and has emerged as Lalu's political successor. He has been leading the RJD for the past several years and was the Chief Ministerial candidate of the INDIA Bloc in the recently held Bihar Assembly polls.
The Genesis of the Rift
Of all the children, only Misa – named so by Lalu as an act of defiance against the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the Emergency – was in politics till 2013. She never hid her political ambitions. But the RJD chief is said to favour his sons more than his daughters. Tejashwi and his elder brother Tej Pratap entered politics in 2013-14, were elected MLAs in the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections, and went on to become Deputy Chief Minister and minister, respectively.
Tej Pratap and Tejashwi have rarely got along since their childhood and spent much of their tenure as ministers on what the other was up to. Meanwhile, Lalu, at an RJD workers’ conference at Rajgir in 2017, announced that Tej Pratap and Tejashwi would guide the party after him. It also meant that Misa was left out of the race.
Misa, who was also present at the conference, had quipped that son's get the mantle as per the tradition, but had also added that it was up to the people to decide the fate of the sons. It indicated her displeasure. Of the two brothers, Tejashwi proved his mettle and rapidly climbed up to become the de facto boss of the RJD. Lalu also repeatedly asserted that he would guide the party and take important decisions for it.
Tejashwi soon formed his own team, including the present Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Yadav and others. His rising stature in the party sowed the seeds of a further rift in the family around 10 years ago.
The Rift Split Wide Open In 2025
As Tejashwi rose in the party, so did the rift among his more politically oriented siblings. It kept simmering with the siblings opening a front against his aides, especially Sanjay. However, they were taken casually.
In May 2025, Tej Pratap, who is known for his wayward behaviour, posted on a social media platform about being in a relationship with a girl for over a decade. The revelation came as a shock as he is still married to Aishwarya, though both of them are going through a divorce case in a Patna court.
Lalu quickly disowned him and threw him out of the family and the party – a move partly political, aimed at protecting the image of the family and its values in a year in which the state was poised for Assembly elections.
Tej Pratap sharpened his attack against the aides of Tejashwi, calling them traitors. At times, he hit out at Tejashwi too. He went on to form a political party (JJD), which contested 22 seats in Bihar, but failed to win even a single one. Tej Pratap was also among the losers.
The JJD had fielded a candidate against Tejashwi, who contested from the Raghopur constituency, and Tej Pratap had campaigned for him. However, the younger brother romped home with over 14,000 votes, defeating the nearest rival Satish Kumar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Of late, Tej Pratap has been praising some of the development measures taken by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). He even slammed the protests against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
Lalu's second daughter Rohini shared a post of one Alok Kumar on her social media accounts. It showed Sanjay sitting on the front seat of a small bus, which was modified as a vanity van, and was used by Tejashwi during his Bihar Adhikar Yatra.
"The front seat is always marked for the top leader, and nobody should sit on it even in his absence. Though it is another matter if somebody is considering himself to be above the top leadership," read Alok’s post shared by Rohini.
It further stated that "the entire Bihar, including us, are accustomed to seeing Lalu ji and Tejashwi Yadav sitting on the front seat. Anybody else sitting on it is entirely unacceptable to us. It is another matter for sycophants who see a remarkable strategist, advisor, and saviour in a substandard person."
The incident indicated growing opposition to Sanjay in the family. It increased in the aftermath of the election results. Rohini questioned the dismal performance and called for fixing the responsibility.
A day after the devastating defeat, she left the Lalu–Rabri residence in a huff (alleging verbal abuse, physical assault and being asked to leave). She boarded a flight to Delhi and later returned to Singapore.
"I have no family. You can go and ask this to Sanjay, Rameez, and Tejashwi. They are the ones who have thrown me out of the family. They don't want to take any responsibility (of defeat). If you call yourself Chanakya, you will be asked questions by party workers," Rohini told reporters at the Patna airport.
"The entire nation and the world is asking why the party fared like this. When you take the name of Sanjay and Rameez, you will be thrown out of the house, defamed, abused, and even beaten with slippers...," she added.
Tej Pratap took the side of Rohini, opened a front against Sanjay, and threatened to act against him to take revenge. However, Misa and other sisters remained silent in public over the issue.
However, the RJD insiders assert that the discontent in the family is still simmering. It may rise again when Tejashwi, currently said to be in Europe for a vacation with his wife and children, returns to Patna.
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