Tejashwi Yadav | The cricketer-turned-heir apparent

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who turned the speaking level of the Bihar Assembly elections with enthusiastic and nearly delirious crowds thronging his round the clock rallies, will flip 31 on Monday.

Born on November 9, 1989, 4 months earlier than his father Lalu Prasad Yadav, on the age of 42, turned the Chief Minister of Bihar for the primary time, Mr. Tejashwi is now on the centre of the opposition marketing campaign to unseat Nitish Kumar, who has been in energy for 15 years.

He is the youngest of the 9 kids of Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Today’s media-savvy crowdpuller stands in stark distinction with the Tejashwi Yadav of May 2019, when the RJD suffered an enormous loss within the Lok Sabha elections.

It was the primary election of the RJD with out Mr. Lalu Yadav in cost. Mr. Tejashwi’s elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav had fashioned the Lalu-Rabri Morcha. The youngest of Mr. Lalu Prasad’s 9 kids, Mr. Tejashwi confronted criticism for “not accommodating” allies, particularly the Communist Party of India’s rising star Kanhaiya Kumar, on account of “insecurity”. There had been reviews of him not being “respectful” in the direction of the RJD’s senior leaders.

He didn’t solid his vote within the Lok Sabha polls, after struggling a ligament harm. For greater than a month, he disappeared from the general public eye, leaving it to others to clarify the occasion’s humiliating defeat — the RJD drew a clean within the Lok Sabha election.

So what has modified in 18-months? “Nothing,” says his shut aide Sanjay Yadav. The ‘Delhi media’ have found Mr. Tejashwi solely now, says Mr. Yadav. “ False perception was created that he [Tejashwi] doesn’t have a connect with the party cadres or the voters. If that was the case, the party would have disintegrated after Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA in 2017.Did that happen?”

The transition from being Mr. Lalu Prasad’s son to approaching his personal took a very long time for Mr. Tejashwi. Politics was not his first selection of profession. He began out as a cricketer after dropping out of sophistication 10. He was learning at Delhi Public School, R K Puram, in Delhi.

A center order batsman with good cowl drive, he was in Delhi’s under-19 cricket crew on the identical time when Virat Kohli was taking part in. He additionally performed a season for Jharkhand throughout a Ranji Trophy event. Later, he was picked for the Delhi Daredevils IPL crew, the place he needed to stick it out on the reserve bench for 4 seasons from 2008. In 2012, he gave up on cricket and determined to focus full time on politics.

First public tackle

Mr. Lalu Prasad picked him over his elder brother, Tej Pratap Yadav, to be his political inheritor. Mr. Tejashwi’s first public tackle was in 2010 when he campaigned along with his father for the Assembly election. The RJD then received solely 22 seats within the 243-member Assembly.

When Mr. Lalu Prasad was arrested in September 2013, the occasion was not able to anoint Mr. Tejashwi because the inheritor. Ram Kripal Yadav, a Lalu aide, advised reporters then that the polls had been being fought below steering of the occasion patriarch. “Tejashwi is very much involved in the party affairs. But he will be made a leading face of the party only in the long term,” he had mentioned. A 12 months later, Mr. Ram Kripal converted to the BJP after Mr. Lalu Prasad selected his daughter Misa Bharati for the Pataliputra seat over him.

In 2014, Mr. Tejashwi didn’t contest the Lok Sabha elections as he was not but 25.The RJD received solely 4 seats out of Bihar’s 40 seats, whereas his mom Rabri Devi misplaced from Saran and sister Misa Bharti from Patliputra.

At 26, Mr. Tejashwi contested his first election in 2015 from the Raghopur Assembly constituency and received because the RJD and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United (JD-U) had been in an alliance. With 81 seats, 11 greater than the JD (U)’s tally, it was a convincing victory for Mr. Lalu Prasad. Mr. Tejashwi was appointed Deputy Chief Minister below Nitish Kumar.

Months earlier than the alliance fell, a CBI case was registered towards Mr. Tejashwi on State authorities’s consent for a ‘land for resort” rip-off. Mr. Tejashwi accused the BJP of taking part in vendetta politics. The Mahagatbandhan collapsed in July 2017 when Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA.

In 2018, Tejashwi obtained the vindication that he was ready for. His occasion received the bypolls for Araria Parliamentary seat and Jehanabad meeting seat.

Now, when the elections are below manner, Mr. Tejashwi is going through the largest take a look at of his profession — unseat the NDA from energy.

Senior RJD chief and Rajya Sabha MP Manoj K. Jha, who has been related to Mr. Tejashwi since 2012, claims that, he’s a eager learner. “He has the ability to listen to everyone from people of Bihar to experts who closely study the State and then make his mind independently,” Mr. Jha mentioned.