BJP shifts its Bihar poll strategy, targeting Tejashwi Yadav’s alleged corruption instead of the old ‘jungle raj’ pitch, with focus on CBI-ED cases and RJD’s family wealth.
BJP to target Tejashwi over “Family Corruption” (Image: X/@yadavtejashwi)
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is preparing to make Tejashwi Yadav’s alleged corruption the centrepiece of its Bihar election campaign, signalling a clear shift from its older “jungle raj” narrative that long defined its attacks on the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
Party strategists say the focus will move from law-and-order to financial impropriety and misuse of office, drawing from a string of CBI and Enforcement Directorate investigations involving the Yadav family.
According to BJP sources, the campaign will highlight how, during Lalu Prasad Yadav’s tenure as Railway Minister, two IRCTC hotels in Puri and Ranchi were allegedly allotted to a private hotelier in exchange for 3.5 acres of land in Patna. The land was not directly taken in the family’s name, but transferred to Delight Marketing, a company then owned by RJD MP Prem Chand Gupta.
Between 2010 and 2016, the shares of that company were gradually transferred to Tejashwi Yadav and Rabri Devi, making them full owners. The BJP plans to point out that in 2017, construction of a mall in Patna began on the same land — and that the soil used for filling the site was allegedly taken illegally from the Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park (Patna Zoo), at a time when Tej Pratap Yadav was the Forest Minister.
Investigative agencies have also named a Kolkata-based shell firm, Fairgrow Holdings, which reportedly purchased a house worth Rs 10 crore without any real business activity. BJP leaders say these cases together show how public office and private gain were “intertwined” across generations.
Party sources further claim that by the age of 29, Tejashwi had become the owner of 52 properties, including five houses and 47 land parcels — some allegedly registered when he was still a child. The CBI has charged him under IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating), along with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and PMLA.
The Enforcement Directorate has already attached assets worth Rs 8,500 crore, while BJP sources estimate the family’s total wealth at around Rs 40,000 crore. The party intends to link these figures to its larger theme of dynastic corruption and “wealth built on political power.”
Tejashwi’s earlier role as a handling agent for Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. — allegedly undeclared in his election affidavit — is also expected to feature in BJP speeches and social media messaging.
“The state has seen how corruption became a family business,” a senior BJP leader said. “This election is not just about jungle raj anymore — it’s about how that same legacy continues through new faces.”
The RJD has rejected the allegations as baseless and politically driven, accusing the BJP of reviving old cases to distract from real issues.
But within the BJP, the pivot is seen as deliberate — a move to portray Tejashwi not as a symbol of change, but as an heir to the very system his party claims to have outgrown.
