PATNA: A visibly emotional Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who has been publicly accused by sister Rohini Acharya of misbehaviour and attacked by elder brother Tej Pratap, on Monday told RJD MLAs that they were free to elect someone else as their legislative party leader before his father and party patriarch Lalu Prasad quickly intervened to say he should continue to lead the party in the Bihar assembly, according to a legislator who was present at the meeting.Soon thereafter, the newly elected RJD MLAs chose Tejashwi as their legislative party leader. Apart from Lalu Prasad, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi and their eldest daughter and party MP Misa Bharti also attended the meeting. Tejashwi’s aide Sanjay Yadav, who is at the centre of the turmoil in Lalu Prasad’s family, was also present at the meeting.
“Tejashwi ji was emotional. He gave us the option to elect anyone else as RJD legislative party leader,” the legislator said, adding that he also launched an indirect attack on Rohini, saying he had been asked to deny “someone” a ticket, but he refused to do so. “What to do? Do I see the party? Or the family?” he asked. The meeting also discussed the party’s poor performance, with particular emphasis on seats lost by narrow margins.Senior RJD leader Jagadanand Singh, speaking after the meeting, blamed EVMs for RJD’s disastrous performance. “Till the time machine (EVM) is there, democracy will be mocked. These machines were misused,” said Singh.Another RJD MLA, Bhai Birendra, echoed the charge while speaking to the media. “We have to fight against EVMs. We demand that elections should be held using ballot papers,” he said.RJD managed to win only 25 of the 143 seats it contested in the election for the 243-member Bihar assembly, finishing in the third place. In 2020 polls, RJD had emerged as the single largest party in
