Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughters, who are not in politics, have also come under the scanner of central agencies for the alleged land-for-job scam, but his elder son Tej Pratap Yadav is not yet on their target. Political analysts of Bihar are not ready to accept it as mere coincidence.
Tej Pratap Yadav. (Photo Credits: Twitter/@TejYadav14)
At a time when the entire family of Lalu Prasad Yadav has come under the scanner of central investigative agencies in connection with the alleged land-for-jobs scam, Lalu’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav is the only person who is still untouched by it. Political observers of Bihar are not considering it just a coincidence and are giving it political importance.
This ignoring of Tej Pratap by the agencies does not seem coincidental in any way, especially considering that the houses and properties belonging to Lalu’s daughters- Chanda, Ragini, and Hema and their in-laws have also been raided. The investigating agencies also raided the house of Misa Bharti, a Rajya Sabha member and Lalu’s eldest daughter.
Lalu’s other daughter, Rohini Acharya, who donated her kidney to him last December, lives in Singapore. The youngest of nine siblings, Rajlakshmi is married to Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, grandson of Mulayam Singh Yadav. He was an MP from the Samajwadi Party.
One of his daughters, Anushka, is married to Chiranjeev Rao, son of former Congress minister Captain Ajay Singh Yadav in Haryana. Rao is a Youth Congress leader. In this way, both the younger sons-in-law of Lalu are themselves in politics.
Even in 2017, when central agencies took action against top RJD leaders, Tej Pratap stayed out—despite the fact that he was Bihar’s health minister between 2015 and 2017 as part of the Grand Alliance government. However, after this Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar changed sides to rejoin the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The interesting aspect is also that on January 5, 2017, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Patna on the occasion of 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, he called Tej Pratap Krishna in a private meeting. Perhaps because in 2017, on New Year’s Day, Tej Pratap was dressed as Krishna and that photo of him went viral then.
Tej Pratap and the controversies related to him
Unlike Tejashwi Yadav, Tej Pratap has often been embroiled in many controversies, becoming a cause of embarrassment for the Lalu family. This included his marriage to Aishwarya Rai, daughter of former RJD minister Chandrika Rai and granddaughter of former Bihar Chief Minister Daroga Prasad Rai. The family tried to save the marriage, but to no avail.
In addition, he clashed with senior BJP leaders in Bihar, especially Sushil Kumar Modi, on the eve of his son’s wedding.
Tej Pratap’s obstinate nature, which has put the Lalu family in trouble on several occasions, has not made him a target of central agencies. Political analysts of Bihar are making political sense out of it.
Incidentally, when Lalu became the Railway Minister in May 2004, his youngest son Tejashwi was only 14 years old. Tej Pratap was 16 years old and yet his name did not figure in the alleged land-for-job scam. The case dates back to the time when Lalu held the charge of Railway Minister in the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government between 2004 and 2009.
At present, where Misa is the MP and Tejashwi is the Deputy Chief Minister, Tej Pratap is a minister in the Nitish cabinet. Lalu’s other daughters – Chanda, Ragini and Hema – have no political ambitions and are not a threat to the ruling party at the Centre, yet they have not been spared by the investigative agencies.
If the opposition parties in Bihar are accusing the BJP of misusing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax Department against all political rivals, they are ignoring Tej Pratap Yadav and those others, Whom the BJP sees as potential defectors who can come to its side if needed.
This was seen earlier in the case of Himanta Biswa Sharma (Assam), Shubhendu Adhikari (West Bengal) and Hardik Patel (Gujarat). Once he crossed over to the BJP camp, the cases against him were shelved. Perhaps keeping Tej Pratap out of the target of the agencies should also be seen from the same point of view.
(Click here to read this article in English.)
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Categories: Politics Special
