The BJP has ripped into the “patriarchal mentality” of Lalu Yadav’s family after the RJD patriarch’s daughter was allegedly harassed by her family members and held responsible for the party’s devastating loss in the recent elections. Those who couldn’t run their own families were dreaming of running Bihar, the BJP quipped after Rohini Acharya’s public outburst.
Acharya, elder sister of RJD heir-apparent Tejashwi Yadav, quit politics last evening, claiming that she was held responsible for the party’s rout by senior RJD leader Sanjay Yadav and Rameez Khan, a close friend of Tejashwi Yadav.
She also made sensational allegations, ranging from a slipper being raised at her to being accused of buying an election ticket in exchange for a “dirty kidney.” Acharya had donated a kidney to her father, Lalu Yadav, in 2022.
The BJP, which retained power in Bihar alongside JDU, used this opportunity to question the treatment of women in the Yadav family. Pointing to the slipper charge, Amit Malviya, who heads the BJP’s IT cell, described the Yadav family as having a “patriarchal, anti-woman, and male-dominated mentality.”
“Rohini Acharya donated her kidney to her father, Lalu Prasad, without caring for her own life, so that his life could be extended by some time. But Lalu gave more preference to his son Tejashwi than to the honour of his daughter Rohini. Today, Rohini Acharya is publicly saying that she was even beaten with slippers in the family. This is the real face of the patriarchal, anti-woman, and male-dominated mentality of the Lalu family. It is also inappropriate to expect respect for women from them,” Malviya said.
Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sinha also launched an attack, wondering how such people can run Bihar when they can’t even keep a family together. “The anarchy that was visible outside RJD is also reflected inside the family. People with such a mentality, who cannot keep their own family together, how can they run Bihar? It is their personal matter, so we will not say much, but this mentality will decide their future,” said the BJP leader.
BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, a Bhojpuri singer with a massive fanbase in Bihar, said Acharya’s allegations reflected the mentality of the regime known for ‘jungle raj.’ “Those who were dreaming of running Bihar could not even run their own families. Rohini Acharya said that she was thrown out of the house for asking questions and was beaten up; this somewhere reflects the mentality for which the entire regime was known for jungle raj,” Tiwari told news agency ANI.
Union Minister Chirag Paswan, a key ally of the BJP in Bihar, refused to take aim at the Yadav family, stating that he considers all the Yadav children, Tejashwi Yadav, Tej Pratap, Misa Bharti, and Rohini Acharya, his siblings. “I have also been through this. We might have had political differences, but I always considered Lalu ji’s family my own. Be it Tejashwi, Tej, Misa or Rohini, I have considered them my siblings. So, I pray that this family dispute is resolved at the earliest,” he added.
