Victory for Lalu's sons, defeat for wards of Sharad, Shatrughan

Patna, November 11

They entered the Bihar poll battle to protect and carry forward their fathers’ political legacy, but many failed.

Among the most famous victorious dynasts RJD president Lalu Prasad’s two sons — Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav — romped home comfortably from Raghopur and Hasanpur seats, respectively.

But veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav’s 30-year-old daughter Subhasini Raj Rao. who contested from Bihariganj on the Congress ticket, could not get the chance to serve his father’s “karambhoomi” of Madhepura. She lost to sitting MLA Neeranjan Mehta of the JD(U).

Luv Sinha, son of actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who contested on the Congress ticket from Bankipur in the heart of Patna lost to BJP’s Nitin Nabin by over 27,000 votes.

Among the victorious candidates are Shreyasi Singh (Jamui seat), Commonwealth Games shooting medal winner and daughter of former Union Minister Digvijay Singh, Sanjiv Chaurasia (Digha), son of Sikkim Govenor Ganga Prasad, Rahul Tiwari (Shahpur), son of RJD vice-president Shivanand Tiwari, and Sudhakar Singh (Ramgarh), son of state RJD president Jagdanand Singh.

JD(U)’s Nikhil Mandel, the grandson of Mandal Commission report’s author BP Mandal, lost to experienced Chandrasekhar of the RJD in Madhepura.

A fight among two brothers took place in Jokihat in Araria district, where sons of former Union Minister Mohammad Taslimuddin were pitted against each other. Younger brother Mohammad Shahnawaz, who contested on Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM party, defeated his brother Sarfaraz Alam of the RJD by over 17,000 votes.

Sadhu Yadav, the controversial brother-in-law of Lalu Prasad, who entered the fray on Mayawati’s BSP party, lost to Subhas Singh of the BJP by over 36,000 votes in Gopalganj.

Hindustani Awam Morch president Jitan Ram Manjhi won the Imamganj seat but his son-in-law Devendra Kumar lost to RJD’s Satish Kumar in Makhdumpur s. PTI

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Tejashwi: Political novice who gave veterans a run for their money

Patna, November 11

An avid cricketer whose career never really took off, a political greenhorn who got power on a silver platter but failed to keep it, a scion of Bihar’s most powerful family who could not get past the 9th grade.

That was Tejashwi Yadav until the 2020 Assembly polls marked the coming of age of a politician who valiantly went down fighting an army of battle-hardened veterans.

He may have failed to learn the textbook lessons at Delhi Public School, RK Puram, in the national capital but showed an uncanny knack of reading the mind of voters, like his more famous father, as he led the Opposition Grand Alliance to an impressive performance, winning 110 seats in the 243-member assembly.

The 31-year-old also powered the RJD to the status of the single-largest party in the House with 75 seats.

Analysts feel Tejashwi’s poll promise of sanctioning “10 lakh government jobs at my first Cabinet meeting” was a masterstroke which had the young voter swooning in a state reeling from widespread joblessness sparked by the Covid-induced lockdown when the return of countless migrants home brought the state’s largely agrarian economy under further stress.

The promise was good but not good enough to bring down the NDA government.

As part of a cleverly crafted strategy that endeared him to liberals, he chose to steer clear of contentious issues like Ram Temple, a bait thrown at him by top BJP leaders, and stuck to his core agenda of unemployment and alleged corruption in the Nitish Kumar administration.

For a young man whose ability to lead the party was called into question after the RJD’s unprecedented debacle in the Lok Sabha elections when it failed to win even one of the state’s 40 seats, it was no mean feat that he succeeded in galvanising an organisational machinery after the battering.

Humility is a trait which, according to those who saw him at school or later as an aspiring cricketer, defines the younger son of former CM Lalu Yadav which was reflected in the manner in which he accommodated the Congress and Left, seen as a spent force in the state ever since it was swept over by the Mandal wave.

Another hallmark of his personality is the ability to think on his feet. After deciding early on in life that studies were not for him, Yadav chose not to cling to his cricketing aspirations either after the much-needed big break eluded him. Contracted by IPL franchise Delhi Daredevils for some time, he remained on the reserve list. He announced his “retirement” from cricket just a couple of years before entering politics in 2015 at the tender age of 25. PTI