After poll debacle, Lalu's daughter quits politics

EC OFFICIALS CLARIFY VOTER JUMP

- MPOST BUREAU

A day after the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) got a severe drubbing in the Bihar Assembly polls, party supremo Lalu Prasad’s daughter Rohini Acharya on Saturday announced that she was “quitting politics” and severed ties with the family.

Acharya, a doctor by qualification, who chose to become a homemaker and settled with her Singapore-based husband, made the announcement in a cryptic post on her X handle.

“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 her 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.

It was not clear from Acharya's post what exactly Sanjay Yadav and Rameez had said to her. Acharya, who was in the news for donating a kidney to her father a few years ago, had unsuccessfully contested 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Saran.

It was speculated that she was “unhappy” over the expulsion of Tej Pratap Yadav, elder son of Prasad, from the party. However, during the Assembly elections, she was seen campaigning for Tejashwi.

The RJD’s seat tally slipped to 24 from 75 in the Bihar Assembly polls.

Meanwhile, the Congress on Saturday questioned the role of the Election Commission in the poll process while its top leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, went into a huddle to discuss the poll outcome.