Aishwarya’s divorce saga has widened rift between Lalu, Chandrika Rai families.
New Delhi: The feud between families of Lalu Yadav and Chandrika Rai in Bihar has intensified with Tej Pratap Yadav’s estranged wife Aishwarya Rai planning to contest against RJD leader and Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav from the Raghopur Assembly constituency. To counter this, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has inducted Aishwarya’s niece Karishma into the party fold, who may be filed against Chandrika Rai, Aishwarya’s father. The state Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in October.
RJD sources said the party may field Karishma against her uncle, Aishwarya’s father Chandrika Rai at the Parsa Assembly constituency. Chandrika had won the last elections on the RJD ticket. However, after the unpleasant divorce issue of his daughter Aishwarya with Lalu’s elder son Tej Pratap, he is planning to desert RJD and it is speculated that he may contest from JDU this time.
Karishma is a doctor by profession. While joining the RJD, Karishma reportedly said that they have old relations with the family of Lalu Yadav. The Parsa seat has become a matter of prestige for the RJD. Sources said there is considerable resentment against the RJD over the divorce issue, after which Aishwarya had levelled charges against Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi and daughter Misa Bharti, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP.
The issue has further created a rift in the Lalu family which is already facing severe infighting. Tej Pratap Yadav has expressed his unhappiness over the decision to induct Karishma into the party fold. He has alleged that that he was not consulted (by his younger brother Tejashwi Yadav) before taking such a crucial decision of taking a member of his wife’s family into the RJD. He took to Twitter to say that he does not trust anyone who is related to the family who “ruined his life”.
Tej Pratap got married to Aishwarya with great fanfare in May 2018. But in the same year in November, Tej Pratap filed a divorce petition. But even after that, Aishwarya was staying in the residence of Rabri Devi. However, in December last year, Aishwarya alleged that she was being “harassed and tortured” and subsequently, thrown out of the Rabri Devi residence, something which was denied by the Lalu family members. The incident widened the rift between the families of Lalu Yadav and Chandrika Rai. Chandrika Rai, who has been very close to Lalu, stopped attending party meetings and functions ever since then. The battle between the two families is getting murkier with the JDU planning to field Aishwarya from Raghopur, the Assembly constituency currently retained by Tejashwi Yadav. Sources said the JDU game plan is to restrict Tejashwi, who is going to be the star campaigner in the absence of Lalu who is serving his jail term, to Raghopur. RJD sources said Aishwarya may get sentiment votes by telling the voters about the “injustice” meted out by the Lalu family. Sources, in fact, said that Aishwarya may also contest against her husband Tej Pratap from the Mahua constituency.