New Delhi, Oct 29: When his estranged elder sibling Tej Pratap Yadav said that Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi was living in their father Lalu Prasad’s shadow, the younger brother could have nodded in agreement since his aspiration to be Bihar’s next Chief Minister lay through that path.

Early this year, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) national executive committee passed a resolution empowering Tejaswi to levels that equalled that of the founder and party President Lalu. It was thus clear who among the latter’s nine children would carry the legacy forward.

Four of Lalu-Rabri’s children exhibited interests in politics, with Misha Bharti standing by Tejashwi in the current family feud, seemingly content as a Lok Sabha member, while the younger Rohini Acharya has extended support to Tej Pratap.

Rohini, who unsuccessfully contested as an RJD candidate from Bihar’s Saran Lok Sabha constituency in 2024, makes no secret of her disappointment over their father’s endorsement of Tejashwi. She also makes it known that it was she who donated a kidney to Lalu earlier.

Tejashwi’s elevation in RJD was, therefore, through a family feud that is standing out more vividly with the elections. The resilience and determination that he has shown in his fights within the family and party reflected outside – in seat-sharing negotiations. Despite his age and experience being less than most of his allies, he handled them with elan, refusing to give in much to their demands.

He lacks the rustic sense of humour of his father, but that did not come in the way of making the partners smile, even if reluctantly. The exercise bore fruit in 2020 when the Mahagathbandhan fell short of a majority by only a dozen seats and the RJD emerged as the single largest party, winning 75 of Bihar’s 243 Assembly constituencies. He has thus lived by Lalu’s legacy of using alliance strength when facing a stronger opponent.

In 1999, when Sonia Gandhi was poised to stake a claim to form the government but Mulayam Singh Yadav refused to support, Lalu – despite being a political rival at times – was more amenable to working with the Congress. Though he had only seven seats in the Lok Sabha, the Bihar strongman played a role in trying to bridge gaps between regional leaders and Gandhi.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, when the RJD won 24 Lok Sabha seats, giving Lalu substantial influence in forming the new government, he had famously said “I will play the role of queenmaker”, referring to his support for the Sonia-led Congress.

In the run-up to the 2025 polls, Tejashwi did upset a few parties – including the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and national ally Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) – but he did not want RJD to either lose vote share or vote bank, accommodating more partners. He calculated that getting AIMIM onboard could paint a Muslim overreach and could affect Yadav votes. Bihar’s caste census report of 2022 shows the former at around 17.70 per cent and the latter at about 14.3 per cent. He is rather intending to somehow break into the Backward (OBC) and the Extremely Backward Class (EBC) votes, who together constitute some 63.1 per cent of Bihar’s population.

The RJD, which initially enjoyed their support, witnessed an erosion in OBC votes, being viewed as leaning further towards Muslim-Yadav support; while EBC votes shifted for Bihar’s ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United). He is thus trying to live Lalu’s legacy of using “Mandal” over “Kamandal”.

Lalu’s rise to prominence was rooted in the implementation and political mobilisation around the Mandal Commission’s recommendations. He used it as a tool against so-called Kamandal politics, said to be in favour of majoritarian, upper-caste-centred Hindutva projects. This consolidation also helped Lalu decimate the rising Communist forces, who stuck to “class struggle” over the state’s caste equations.

However, Tejashwi also carries the legacy of “jungle raaj” under the Lalu-Rabri regime that his critics have repeatedly raised with a slogan of “good governance” from Nitish Kumar. That is among the aspects of his father’s shadow that the young Yadav is trying hard to step out of.

Srinagar, Oct 29: Bollywood actor Mukesh Rishi on Wednesday watched the proceedings of J&K Assembly from the Speaker’s Gallery as members cutting across party lines welcomed his presence.

The Assembly warmly welcomed Rishi, who was present in the Speaker’s Gallery during the ongoing session.

Members across party lines greeted the actor with applause as Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather announced his presence in the House.

Rishi belongs to J&K and was born on April 19, 1956, in a Gujjar Chaudhary family in Kathua district.

Growing up in Jammu, graduating from Government College, Sector 11, Chandigarh, and working for two years in Mumbai, Rishi moved to Fiji for work, where he met his future wife, who is of Indo-Fijian ancestry. Her family ran a traditional departmental store. He has a lucrative investment portfolio, including warehouse investments.

He later worked as a model in New Zealand before beginning his acting career in India.

An actor known for playing villainous and supporting roles and a film producer, he has worked in Hindi, Telugu, and other films. Among his better-known Bollywood movies are “Gunda” (1998), “Sarfarosh” (1999), and “Koi… Mil Gaya” (2003).

The Autumn Session of the J&K Assembly will end on October 31. With its conclusion, all the top offices of government, including those of the Chief Minister, his cabinet colleagues, the Chief Secretary, administrative secretaries and the Director General of Police (DGP) will move to the winter capital Jammu.

The move is called the “Dabar Move” and will see the offices functioning for six months from the winter capital, Jammu.

The over one and a half century old practice of shuttling offices between Srinagar and Jammu was stopped by the Lt Governor in 2021, but has been restored by the elected government headed by Omar Abdullah.

Mumbai,: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday spoke over the phone with family members of a woman doctor who allegedly died by suicide in Maharashtra’s Satara district, assuring them of support in their fight for justice.

The doctor’s family members, while demanding justice for her, asked Gandhi to put pressure on the government to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for a probe into her death.

They said it has been a week since the doctor’s death and feared that evidence would be wiped out.

Gandhi spoke to the woman’s parents and siblings over the phone of Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal when he visited them at Kavadgaon village in Beed district.

The Congress MP assured them that he would pressure the government to set up an SIT to probe the woman’s death.

The 28-year-old doctor was found hanging in a hotel room in Phaltan town of Satara district on the night of October 23.

The postmortem mentioned the cause as asphyxia due to hanging, indicating the doctor had died by suicide. In a note written on her palm, she alleged police sub-inspector Gopal Badane raped her on multiple occasions, while Prashant Bankar, a software engineer, mentally harassed her, police have said.

Both of them were arrested on October 25.

According to police, there was no evidence of forced entry into the hotel room, ruling out the presence of anyone else during the incident.

The victim’s relatives have demanded an SIT be constituted, alleging that crucial data was deleted from her mobile phone after her death.

Her uncle claimed that her phone was accessed using her fingerprint after she died, leading to the erasing of “vital information related to the incident.” Residents of Wadwani in Beed observed a bandh on Tuesday, demanding a probe by an SIT into the alleged suicide of the doctor who hailed from the region.