Patna: Jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav on Thursday announced that he will launch his new online platform “Tej Sena” on Friday.
Tej Pratap launched the political outfit 'Lalu-Rabri Morcha' two months ago and had fielded candidates to contest the Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. “Join Tej Sena — an online platform for change makers. Launching on June 28,” the state’s former health minister tweeted.
The picture carries an image of Tej Pratap Yadav, besides a small sketch of a lantern, the RJD's poll symbol.
The development comes less than a week after the maverick leader had called on Lalu Prasad, who is serving sentences in fodder scam cases, at a hospital in Ranchi and gifted him a copy of the Bhagavad Gita.
Tej Pratap Yadav, who had briefly served as Bihar Health minister while the RJD shared power with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), drew praise from the BJP.
"We congratulate Tej Pratap Yadav for his latest move. This shows he has the capacity to put up a fight. It has been more than a month since the RJD was obliterated in the Lok Sabha polls and Misa Bharti (eldest sister) and Tejashwi Yadav (younger brother) have gone into hiding. But Tej Pratap Yadav has shown perseverance in the face of defeat," state BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand said in a statement here.
"Tejashwi Yadav has been absconding ever since his inability to lead his own party and the Mahagathbandhan which the RJD leads was exposed. On the other hand, Tej Pratap keeps improvising despite having been sidelined by his party as well as his family," Anand alleged.
"Tej Pratap has demonstrated that he is a more deserving political heir to his father. Before Tejashwi arrived on the scene, Abdul Bari Siddiqui had made his mark as a much more competent Leader of the Opposition. RJD MLAs should think of replacing Tejashwi with Tej Pratap or any other leader of their choice," the BJP spokesperson added.
RJD sources said the BJP's praise is aimed at fishing in troubled waters.
"The NDA has been working towards driving a wedge between the two brothers since it knows that would finish off RJD. We just hope that Tej Pratap does not fall into the trap," the sources said.
In April, Tej Pratap Yadav had resigned as the mentor of the RJD's student wing and followed it up with floating of a parallel outfit 'Lalu-Rabri Morcha', claiming that it was intended to strengthen the party.
Some close associates of Tej Pratap Yadav also contested the Lok Sabha polls as rebel candidates which cost the party dearly, especially in closely-fought battles like Jehanabad, which the JD(U) won by a slender margin of just over 1,000 votes.
The RJD drew a blank in the general elections, with the NDA comprising BJP, JD(U) and Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP gaining 39 out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats, with the Congress, among opposition parties, winning just one seat.
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