History is testimony to the fact that close aides to the throne have been the cause of the fall of political legacies & empires. Even in today’s India, history has repeated time and again. VK Pandian in Odisha & now Sanjay Yadav in Bihar are such perfect examples.
Campaigning for the forthcoming Bihar polls has suddenly become Sanjay Yadav-centric. The way Lalu’s heir apparent & RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav continues to pamper his key strategist Sanjay Yadav despite being objected to by family members, Tej Pratap Yadav, Rohini Acharya & even Misa Bharti is a clear writing on the wall.
As we know, RJD Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Yadav is no ordinary individual but is a key strategist for the Lalu family. He is a time-tested aide, who is credited with RJD’s victory in the last assembly elections (2020) in the state. How he exploited RSS supremo’s statement on reservations leading to RJD’s success is still talked about in political circles.
Now, why is his name making a controversy? He is, of course, a Yadav but from the far-off state of Haryana & comes from Nangal Sirohi village in Mahendragarh district of the state. But today, he is the eyes and ears of Tejashwi Yadav, who is leading the RJD campaign in the run-up to the Bihar assembly polls. But Lalu Prasad family members, Tej Pratap, Misa Bharti & Rohini Acharya on several occasions have publicly expressed their unhappiness over Sanjay Yadav’s growing influence in RJD.
The latest attack on Sanjay Yadav came from Lalu’s daughter, Rohini Acharya, who objected to the former’s sitting in the front seat of a specially designed bus being used by Tejashwi Yadav in the ongoing Bihar Adhikar Yatra, in another way, questioning Sanjay’s influence on Tejashwi. Tej Pratap Yadav already identifies Sanjay Yadav as Jaichand.
While Tejashwi continues to protect his advisor, Sanjay, the matter is snowballing into a major election issue. Now All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, AIMIM, has raised the Sanjay Yadav issue. AIMIM leader & Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, who is campaigning in Bihar these days, said that while some in Bihar say that he (Owaisi) has come from Hyderabad, they keep quiet about how a Haryana native came to Bihar and became the Rajya Sabha MP, in obvious reference to Sanjay Yadav. AIMIM has pockets of influence in Bihar & won five assembly seats in the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region of Bihar in 2020 assembly elections.
But Sanjay Yadav is not a new phenomenon. A right-hand man has been a cause of the fall of powerful political families in the past. Only recently, we saw how in Odisha, the long-drawn rule of the Patnaik family ended. Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal lost in the assembly elections. Naveen, as chief minister, was banking on a Tamilian IAS officer VK Pandian, who was constantly seen in his rallies like Sanjay Yadav today is seen in Tejashwi’s public meetings. Pandian, who hailed from Tamil Nadu, was even been seen as a political successor to Naveen Patnaik. Some even alleged that Pandian was running the government in Odisha on behalf of Naveen Patnaik. This narrative went down to the masses, who eventually voted the Naveen Patnaik government out of power.
Thus, close aides have contributed to the fall of political legacies & Sanjay Yadav is no exception.
