Janjivan Bureau
Patna: Who is elder son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s, Tej Pratap or Tejashwi Yadav? Lalu’s older son Tej Pratap Yadav is a year junior to his younger brother Tejashwi Yadav.According to the affidavit filed by Tej Pratap for the Mahua assembly seat, he is 25 years old, while the one filed by Tejashwi for the Raghopur seat on Saturday shows he is 26. Both Mahua and Raghopur are dominated by Yadavs, RJD’s traditional vote-base.
But Tejaswi on Tuesday claimed that there is no dispute with regard to his age and said that the Election Commission was aware of it.
“There is no dispute. Whatever is there on the voters list, we need to fill that in the affidavit, what is wrong in that? My brother’s voters list has the wrong image. But that is not our fault. We have already filed an online complaint regarding that,” he said.
When asked to comment on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) assertion seeking a clarification in this regard, Tejaswi said that he was not answerable to them.
“Who is the BJP to question me? The Election Commission will ask about it and we have taken all the necessary steps,” he added.
Although RJD leaders said Tej Pratap’s could have been a case of oversight, this has left many in the party red-faced.
Unlike Tejashwi, who dropped out of school in 2006 to pursue cricket and business, Tej Pratap passed his intermediate from the Bihar School Examination Board in 2010.
The affidavit also says Tej Pratap has moveable and immovable assets worth more than Rs 2 crore. He jumped into the fray with Rs 1.25 lakh cash in hand and Rs 4.45 lakh in banks. His liability is a bank loan of Rs 18.45 lakh.
In his income tax return for 2014-15, Tej Pratap has shown Rs 4.45 lakh as his total income while ‘younger-turned-elder’ brother Tejashwi’s income for the same fiscal was Rs 5.09 lakh.
Tej Pratap is accused in one case of disrupting government work in Patna.
After filing his nomination papers, Tej Pratap said the grand alliance oof the JD(U)-Congress-RJD would emerge victorious in the elections as the electorate has called the bluff of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government. “The people are excited about the grand alliance,” Tej Pratap said.
