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Indian Express
09-08-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
As Tej Pratap Yadav eyes Bihar polls, a look at his coalition of five small parties
Expelled RJD leader and ex-Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadav, elder son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, has announced his alliance with five minor parties ahead of the state Assembly elections due in barely three months. This partnership, he said, could 'challenge Bihar's established political order' by bringing about 'social justice, social rights, and comprehensive change'. Tej Pratap's appeal lies primarily among a section of Yadav voters and among those 'disillusioned' with mainstream politics. His religious imagery, temple visits, and claims of being a 'spiritual leader' also resonate with voters. After his ouster from the RJD, the fanbase that Tej Pratap had managed to garner will go through a fire test in the Mahua constituency from where he is contesting as an Independent in the Assembly polls. Tej Pratap's alliance might influence a few constituencies where the five parties have their core support bases. This may split the Opposition votes for the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan and help the ruling Nitish Kumar-led NDA in tight contests. However, none of the five parties have significant grassroots networks, established booth-level presence, or substantial financial resources and will have to be mostly dependent on Tej Pratap's leadership. Here is a look at the five parties: Vikas Vanchit Insaan Party (VVIP) The most prominent among Tej Pratap's new allies is Pradeep Nishad, who heads the newly-formed VVIP. Nishad, also known as 'Helicopter Baba', was once a close associate of Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani. Due to differences, allegedly over 'not getting due respect in the party', Nishad, a native of UP's Mirzapur, left the VIP around 2021. He has formed the VVIP this year. Launched on June 28 and subsequently allotted 'ship' as its election symbol, the VVIP aims to represent the Nishad-Mallah community, traditionally associated with fishing and riverine occupation-based groups, which are currently represented by Sahani's party. During the August 5 press conference held to announce their coalition, Tej Pratap expressed strong support for Nishad and described his outfit as the 'original' party. He alleged that an 'impostor' was running the VIP, who is currently a Mahagathbandhan ally. 'Mukesh Sahani is a bahurupiya (imposter) who has betrayed the community's trust,' Nishad had alleged at an earlier event, referring to Sahani's crossovers between the NDA and the INDIA bloc. The VVIP's emergence may lead to a split in the crucial Nishad vote, which constitutes about 4-8% of Bihar's electorate. The Nishad community has a significant presence in Araria, Forbesganj, and some seats in the Kosi-Seemanchal region. Bhojpuria Jan Morcha The Bhojpuria Jan Morcha led by Bharat Singh 'Sahyogi' started off as an organisation and became a party in 2023. It claims to champion the cause of Bhojpuri-speaking communities in the Bhojpur-Rohtas belt. Bharat Singh has argued that the Bhojpuri culture and identity have been 'systematically marginalised' in Bihar politics and has been actively working for the Bhojpuri community for years. His party had earlier announced its plans to contest all 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly polls. Singh's activism for the Bhojpuri communities has helped his party garner influence in some areas. Pragatisheel Janata Party The Pragatisheel Janta Party, which has been a registered party since 2019, positions itself as a voice for agricultural workers and unemployed youth. Its founder Manoranjan Kumar Srivastav had contested the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections from Chapra constituency but managed to secure only 282 votes. Wajib Adhikar Party Vidyanand Ram, the founder of the Wajib Adhikar Party, told The Indian Express that his party was registered with the Election Commission in August, 2017. 'I contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Samastipur in 2019, and also the bypoll in the seat when its sitting MP Ram Chandra Paswan passed away,' Ram said. He added that his party contested from six seats in the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections and four seats in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, although it drew a blank in these polls. On his party's new alliance, Ram said: 'Tej Pratap ji is a big face, big politician and a person of big heart.' Sanyukt Kisan Vikas Party Founded by Sudhir Kumar, the Sanyukt Kisan Vikas Party, which had unsuccessfully contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, claims to represent small and marginal farmers like sharecroppers. Kumar contested from the Nalanda seat in the 2020 Assembly polls and managed to secure the third place with a total of 25,291 votes.
India Today
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Nobody can stop me: Defiant Tej Pratap seen meeting 'partner' after RJD ouster
A month after a high-voltage drama over his alleged relationship with Anushka Yadav became the talk of the town in Bihar, former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tej Pratap Yadav on Monday met his friend and was seen coming out of her house in Patna. "Nobody can stop me," he told reporters before sitting in his car and leaving the Pratap was expelled from the party and disowned by his father Lalu Prasad Yadav after making his relationship with Anushka public last month. A day after his expulsion, Tej Pratap's estranged wife, Aishwarya Rai, called the RJD supremo's action an eyewash to mislead the people of Bihar."I keep meeting everyone. Nobody can stop me. We have family relations and this how things are," Tej Pratap said as he walked out of Anushka's Patna home. The elder son of Lalu Yadav, who had announced a "long-standing relationship with Anushka Yadav" and later clarified saying that his Instagram account was hacked, said on Monday that he had indeed shared the post. He admitted that he was the one who deleted it as May 24, 2025, Tej Pratap declared that he has been in love with Anushka Yadav for over 12 years and that they are in a relationship. But he later claimed that his account had been hacked, and the photos edited to defame him and his claim of an account hack and the deletion of the post did not deter his father and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Yadav from announcing that he was expelling Tej Pratap from the party for six years, citing his "irresponsible conduct" and deviation from the family's values and public his estranged wife rejected the seriousness of the action and said both father and son were in cahoots."It is a poll season drama enacted by the family. I am sure he will be taken back to the party once the Assembly elections are over," Roy said while speaking to the media two days after Tej Pratap's WOES SOON AFTER WEDDING VOWSTej Pratap Yadav's marriage to Aishwarya Rai, granddaughter of ex-Bihar Chief Minister Daroga Rai, collapsed within months, with Aishwarya accusing her husband and in-laws of throwing her out. Her father, Chandrika Roy — himself a former minister, quit the RJD in protest, pledging to fight the battle "politically and legally".Their divorce case remains stuck in court, with both sides lobbing serious allegations at each other. Tej Pratap claims Aishwarya demanded a hefty alimony; she, in turn, has accused him of drug use and cross-dressing in the upcoming Bihar Assembly Elections, Tej Pratap Yadav is preparing to contest for the Mahua seat in Vaishali district this year, leaving the Hasanpur seat in Samastipur. It may be noted that he won the Mahua seat in 2015, and now he is strategising a return to the same constituency once again.- EndsWith inputs by ShashiTrending Reel IN THIS STORY#Bihar
Indian Express
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Amid Bihar nepotism row, a look at LJP's churn: Paswan's brothers to rise of Chirag's brothers-in-law
The brothers-in-law of RJD president Lalu Prasad, Aniruddh Prasad or Sadhu Yadav and Subhash Yadav, were once known as influential RJD leaders in Bihar. Both Sadhu, former Lok Sabha member, and Subhash, ex-Rajya Sabha MP, are the younger brothers of Lalu's wife and ex-Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, who fell out with Lalu after 2010 and were since marginalised in state politics. With RJD leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, recently raking up the issue of nepotism while alleging that several NDA leaders have cornered various plum government positions for their relatives, such as brothers-in-law or sons-in-law, the political ascendancy of some of them has come into focus now. Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) founder and ex-Union minister, late Ram Vilas Paswan, had often drawn criticism for promoting his younger brothers and ex-MPs, Pashupati Kumar Paras and Ramchandra Paswan (who passed away in 2019), in state politics. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the LJP won six seats in Bihar, three of which were bagged by the members of the Paswan family, which included Paswan from Hajipur, son Chirag Paswan from Jamui, and Ramchandra from Samastipur. Paswan's first wife Rajkumari Devi lives in his ancestral Shaharbanni village in Khagaria. Their two daughters, Asha and Usha, are married, respectively, to Dhananjay alias Mrinal Paswan and Anil alias Sadhu Paswan. Must R LJP(Ram Vilas) chief and Union Minister Chirag Paswan and his elder sister Nisha are the children of Paswan and his second wife Reena. Following Paswan's demise in 2020, Chirag suffered another setback in 2021 when his uncle Pashupati split the LJP with the party's five out of six Lok Sabha MPs joining him. Pashupati became the head of the breakaway party outfit called National Lok Janshakti Party (NLJP) with Chirag taking charge of the LJP(RV). Subsequently, Chirag started visiting Shaharbanni more frequently to meet his stepmother Rajkumari. When she had been engaged in a property dispute with Pashupati early this year, Chirag made it a point to visit her in the village. This sent out a signal to Pashupati that Chirag was backing his stepmother. Chirag also distanced himself from his cousin Prince Paswan, who had become the Samastipur MP after the death of his father Ramchandra. Prince had also turned a rebel by joining the NLJP, which is now struggling for survival after being snubbed by the NDA. When Chirag, after his return to the NDA ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, looked to contest from his father's traditional constituency Hajipur, he decided to give the LJP(RV) ticket to his brother-in-law Arun Bharti, husband of Nisha, from Jamui – the seat Chirag represented for two terms from 2014 to 2024. While Chirag clinched his father's bastion Hajipur by a huge margin, Arun Bharti also had a smooth sailing in Jamui. Bharti, who has an MBA degree, also belongs to a political family with his mother Jyoti having been an MLC twice. Bharti had been working as a business entrepreneur in Delhi till Chirag convinced him to contest the 2024 parliamentary polls. After the LJP(RV)'s success in the Lok Sabha polls, with the party winning all five seats it contested, and Chirag's induction into the Cabinet of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government 3.0, Bharti became a close confidant of the party chief. Recently, it was Bharti who first said, in a social media post, that the LJP(RV) workers wanted Chirag to contest the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections and that too from a general seat 'so that the message goes out that he is now ready to lead the entire Bihar and not just one section'. While Chirag kept people guessing, a buzz was created around the LJP (RV)'s projection of 'nav netritva (new leadership)' for Bihar. On June 8, addressing a rally in Arah, Chirag announced that he would contest the Bihar Assembly polls from a seat that 'people decide for him', ending weeks of speculation over his return to state politics. LJP(RV) sources said Bharti is likely to play a 'bigger role' in the Bihar polls. 'While Bharti has been asked to keep focusing on his Jamui constituency, he has also been given additional responsibility to strategise for the party for the Assembly polls', said an LJP (RV) leader. On his part, Bharti calls himself a 'soldier of LJP(RV) and Chirag Paswan'. In the spotlight now, is also Chirag's another brother-in-law Mrinal Paswan, who has been the LJP(RV) national general secretary after having been a government employee in the excise department for 26 years. As part of the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government's recent move to reconstitute several commissions, Mrinal Paswan was appointed as the Bihar State Scheduled Caste Commission's chairperson. Devendra Kumar Manjhi, son-in-law of HAM (S) chief and Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, was made this Commission's vice chairperson. Amid Tejashwi's bid to attack the Nitish government over nepotism, Mrinal said: 'I now hold a responsible position and would not react to any political allegations'. Hailing Chirag, he also said that he would try to redress the grievances of Dalits in his role as the SC panel head.
NDTV
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- NDTV
Pics: Aishwarya Raj, Wife Of BJP MLA Vishal Prashant, Crowned Mrs Bihar 2025
Aishwarya Raj, the wife of BJP MLA Vishal Prashant, and daughter-in-law of Sunil Pandey, an ex-Bihar MLA, has been crowned Mrs Bihar 2025. She thanked friends and family for believing in her. "From dreams to reality - your girl is now Mrs Bihar 2025! This crown is for every woman who dares to dream," she posted on her Instagram. The aim of the Mrs Bihar beauty pageant is to empower women in the state and provide them with a platform to showcase their beauty, intelligence and wisdom.
NDTV
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- NDTV
Mrs Bihar 2025 Is Aishwarya Raj, Wife Of BJP MLA Vishal Prashant
And Mrs Bihar 2025 is... Aishwarya Raj, the wife of BJP MLA Vishal Prashant, and daughter-in-law of Sunil Pandey, an ex-Bihar MLA. "From dreams to reality - your girl is now Mrs Bihar 2025!" the winner posted on Instagram, sharing the news. Aishwarya Raj also thanked friends and family for believing in her. "This crown is for every woman who dares to dream," she added. Photos and videos of the politician's wife are viral. Ms Raj has over 28,000 followers on Instagram with interests in beauty, fashion, travel and motherhood. She is also fond of expensive cars. Ms Raj reportedly wanted to get into modelling and films, but life had other plans for her. After marriage, she gave birth to a baby boy and put her dreams on hold. But now, she says, with the support of her husband, she is making a comeback. Ms Raj comes from a family rooted in politics and full of politicians. Vishal Prashant, her husband, is an MLA from Tarari assembly constituency in Bihar. Her father-in-law Narendra Kumar Pandey, also known as Sunil Pandey, has been MLA four times - thrice from Piro and once from Tarari. Mrs Bihar 2025 often shares pictures and videos with her husband, including those from his political rallies. Mrs Bihar 2025 To contest for Mrs Bihar 2025, women have to be in the age group of 21 and 55. Women can be divorced, widowed or married with or without children. There is no height or weight restriction in this Bihar pageant. According to the information available on its social media, the goal of the Mrs Bihar beauty pageant is to empower women in the state and provide them with a platform to showcase their beauty, intelligence and wisdom. "Confidence and self-image are what matter to succeed in the pageant," the description read.
