After election setback, Rohini Acharya's exit deepens RJD's woes in Bihar

Amid the huge setback in the Bihar assembly elections, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is facing yet another crisis after party supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter Rohini Acharya announced she was “quitting politics” and “disowning her family”.

In a cryptic post on X on Saturday afternoon, Acharya fired a salvo at two close aides of her brother Tejashwi Yadav—Sanjay Yadav and Rameez—apparently holding them responsible for the party’s debacle in the polls.

"I am quitting politics and I am disowning my family. This is what Sanjay Yadav and Rameez had asked me to do, and I am taking all the blame,” she said in the post, which created a flutter in political circles.

Later, while talking to reporters at Patna airport, Acharya alleged that she was thrown out of the house for questioning Tejashwi’s associates.

"I don't have a family anymore. Go ask Sanjay, Rameez and Tejashwi Yadav. They have thrown me out of the family because they don't want to take responsibility,” she snapped when reporters asked about her post.

She further trained her guns at Sanjay and Rameez, accusing them of acting as political strategists and alleging that those who questioned their role in the party were being insulted.

"As a dedicated party worker, I am questioning the role of Sanjay and Rameez, who pose as Chanakyas. But, if you even utter their name, you end up being insulted and have slippers thrown at you,” she said.

Sanjay Yadav is a Rajya Sabha MP and one of the most trusted aides of Tejashwi, while Rameez is said to be Tejashwi's old friend, who hails from a political family in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.

Acharya's rebellion came hours after the election results were announced, handing the RJD-led alliance a humiliating defeat. The drubbing also came as a huge setback to Tejashwi, the chief ministerial candidate of the Mahagathbandhan, with the party's seat tally slipping to 24 from 75.

Acharya, who was in the news for donating a kidney to her father a few years ago, had unsuccessfully contested last year's Lok Sabha polls from Saran. A doctor by qualification, she chose to become a homemaker and settled with her Singapore-based husband.

It was not immediately clear why Acharya had been upset with Sanjay and Rameez. According to some reports, she felt Sanjay was increasingly controlling the narrative around Tejashwi.

Her emotional post, which came shortly after the election results, is seen as a tactical move aimed at pressuring her parents to intervene and force Tejashwi to take action against the duo.

Acharya was also said to be "unhappy" over the expulsion of Tej Pratap Yadav, elder son of Lalu Prasad, from the party. However, in the run-up to the assembly elections, she was seen campaigning for Tejashwi.

Tej Pratap was expelled last year following a controversy over his personal life. In the assembly elections, he unsuccessfully contested from Mahua, a seat he had won in 2025 on an RJD ticket.