Tej Pratap Steps Down as RJD Students Wing Patron, Says He’s Not as Naive as ‘They Think’

Tej Pratap hints at a rift within the family as he says he had asked for two tickets for the Lok Sabha elections but he didn't hear from brother Tejashwi on the matter.

Patna: Tej Pratap Yadav, the elder son of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi, has done it again. After creating quite a flutter by filing from divorce just months into his marriage, Yadav has now stepped down from his post as the patron of the party’s students wing.

And he announced it on social media with a cryptic tweet. He wrote, “I am stepping down from the post of the patron of RJD students’ wing. Those who think I am naive don’t know that I know everything.”

छात्र राष्ट्रीय जनता दल के संरक्षक के पद से मैं इस्तीफा दे रहा हूँ।
नादान हैं वो लोग जो मुझे नादान समझते हैं।
कौन कितना पानी में है सबकी है खबर मुझे।

— Tej Pratap Yadav (@TejYadav14) March 28, 2019

Hours before that, he had tweeted his best wishes to the newly appointed state president of the wing, Gagan Yadav.

Later, speaking to Zee, he hinted at a rift within the family by saying that he had asked Tejashwi for two tickets but didn’t hear from him. He said, “I am willing to sacrifice my life for my people.”

He added that patriarch Lalu Yadav should realise that the RJD is because of the public but, he rued, his father doesn’t get to hear many things.

Yadav has a penchant for landing in controversies. Only last month, A posse of private bodyguards, hired by RJD MLA Tej Pratap Yadav, was found roaming inside the Bihar Assembly premises when the budget session was underway, prompting the state police chief to order an inquiry into the security breach.

Yadav, however, defended himself by saying “who would provide security to me if I do not take care of my own safety?”

The private bodyguards, when asked what they were doing inside the premises, well inside the area to which entry is prohibited without valid passes, they replied with a terse “No comments”.

Minutes later, the Director General of Police rushed to the Assembly premises where he told reporters, “I have asked Patna SSP Garima Mallik to conduct a thorough inquiry into any lapse that may have taken place. Anybody found guilty of dereliction of duty will be punished.”

Later, Yadav told reporters, “I need to have adequate security for myself. And if I do not make arrangements for the same myself, who will. Would Chief Minister Nitish Kumar provide me with adequate security?”

He also went incommunicado once he had filed for his divorce, only to surface weeks later.