Tej Pratap breaks all norms, seeks action against RJD state president

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav's eldest son seems to have broken all the norms and rules of the party by demanding action against its own State President Jagadnand Singh. He has demanded action from Lalu Prasad Yadav, writes Amit Bhelari, ETV Bharat Bihar Bureau Chief.

Patna: RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav's eldest son seems to have broken all the norms and rules of the party by demanding action against its own State president Jagadnand Singh. He has asked Lalu Prasad Yadav to take action. He not only demanded action but has also humiliated the senior-most leader of the party Shivanand Tiwari who also happens to be the National Vice-President of the RJD.

Tej Pratap also alleged that Singh is being influenced by RSS leaders. The outburst is in the continuation of the action taken by Singh who sacked student wing state head Akash Yadav, a close confidante of Tej Pratap. Last week, Tej Pratap had called Singh 'Hitler' after which the State President had stopped visiting the party office. On Wednesday, Singh visited 10 Circular Road residence and met Tejashwi Yadav to discuss the issue. Sources in the party said that after the request made by Tejashwi, the State president returned to the office after eleven days gap.

Soon after arriving in office, Singh sacked Tej Pratap's close aide Akash Yadav. Furious over the action, Tej Pratap on Thursday demanded strict action against Singh and threatened that he will not take part in any activities of the RJD unless and until action is taken against the State president. Tej Pratap claimed that Singh did not follow the rules of the party constitution and sacked the student wing state head without consulting him.

"Going by his speeches, it seems that he is under the influence of RSS leaders. He is breaking all the rules. I heard him on TV saying who is Tej Pratap. I am asking him to go and check it out with my father Lalu Ji. He lacks the knowledge to run the party. I demand strict action against him or else I will move the court since he has violated the constitution of the party," Tej Pratap said.

In the afternoon when reporters asked Singh about Tej Pratap raising questions on his decision against Akash, the State president reacted sharply and said that who is Tej Pratap and he only knows Lalu Prasad Yadav. Tej Pratap levelled serious charges against Jagadanand Singh and alleges that he is also involved in anti-party activities and stressed that if such a situation will prevail then Tejashwi can never become the Chief Minister of Bihar.

"Jagdanand Singh is jealous of the work being done by the youths. Today, he said who is Tej Pratap, tomorrow he will say who is Lalu Prasad, who is Tejashwi Yadav, who is Misa Bharti? He is not a grassroots level leader. He has disrespected the party values. I will speak to Lalu Ji and Tejashwi about this issue. He has weakened the party and insults dedicated leaders of the party every day," Tej Pratap stressed.

Last month, the veteran RJD leader Jagadnand Singh had resigned from the post of state unit president but his resignation has not been accepted by the party supremo Lalu Prasad. Earlier too, Tej Pratap had openly slammed the state president alleging that Singh does not have any respect for him and nor for the RJD workers and MLAs. Tej Pratap went on to allege that Singh was responsible for the ill-health of his father.

In 2018 Tej Pratap had slammed the then RJD state unit president Ramchandra Purbey and posted a tweet from his official Twitter handle alleging that Purbey had started ignoring the people who have worked with him. When a question was asked about Shivanand supporting the stand of Singh, the Hasanpur MLA Tej Pratap said, "People like Shiavanand Tiwari have played a role in sending my father to jail. He is the one of the people responsible for putting him behind the bars. Since the beginning, Shivanand Tiwari wants to break the party. People like him are supporting Jagdanand Singh. Everyone knows the truth behind it."

Political experts, however, opined that action should be taken against Tej Pratap for his indiscipline behaviour but unfortunately Lalu is not doing so. "It was Tej Pratap who called Jagdanand Singh a Hitler. It was Tej Pratap who said that party post was not someone's legacy. So, action should have been taken against Tej Pratap. The way he is humiliating the state president and challenging him in the public domain. If there is any constitution in the RJD, then action against Tej Pratap must be taken. However, its quite unfortunate that Lalu cannot dare to take any action against his son because he has never gone beyond his family," said Dr Sanjay Kumar, a Patna based political expert.

He further said, "I am wondering why no one has opposed the statement of Tej Pratap so far. It seems there is no modesty in the RJD. I think whatever respect Jagda babu has earned in this entire political career, he will lose it if he continues in the party. The time has come that he should respectfully leave the party instead of getting humiliated every day. If there is no respect in the party, he should exit. Such development is not a good sign for the party and also for Jagda babu."