PATNA: Where is Tej Pratap Yadav? The RJD leader and Bihar’s former health minister allegedly went missing from his hotel room in Bodh Gaya, days after going public about his intention to divorce wife of six months.
While some reports suggest that the older son of former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav could be in Varanasi, others suggest that he’s in Varanasi.
What remains to be seen is whether Tej Pratap will attend his younger brother Tejashwi Yadav’s 29th birthday.
Last year on Tejashwi’s 28th birthday, Tej Pratap organised a special puja for his welfare and long life in Patna’s Patandevi Temple, lighting 28 diyas. He later performed cow worship and offered a Tulsi (Holy Basil) tree procured from Vrindavan.
Days after filing for divorce from his wife Aishwarya Rai, Tej Pratap went to meet his father Lalu in Ranchi. Sources claim that the father had summoned Tej Pratap to change his mind about the divorce, without any success.
The duo met for a couple of hours at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences hospital in Ranchi on Saturday, where the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo is lodged in custody in connection with a fodder scam case.
While coming back to Patna, he checked in at a Bodh Gaya hotel on Sunday night, local MLA Kumar Sarvjeet said.
He dodged his security staff to escape and has since been missing.
He left the hotel Monday afternoon, saying he was going to Patna, Sarvjeet added.
“I met Yadav, along with other party leaders, over dinner Sunday. He was looking exhausted. He bade us goodbye Monday, saying he was returning home. I have the knowledge of his movements only till his departure from the Royal Residency hotel,” the MLA told PTI over phone.
Tej Pratap is reportedly fond of visiting places of pilgrimage like Vrindavan and Varanasi for spiritual solace and one of his grouses against his wife is that she has not been able to adjust to his way of life. He recently spent a number of days in Vrindavan and was seen playing a flute with a peacock feather tied to his head in the midst of a herd of cows.
Aishwarya Rai and Tej Pratap had got married on May 12 this year. Rai is the daughter of RJD leader Chandrika Raithe and grandchild of former Bihar chief minister Daroga Rai.
“It is true that I have filed a petition. Ghut–ghut ke jeene se toh koi fayeda hai nahi (There is no point in living a stifled life),” Tej Pratap had earlier said.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Tej Pratap’s lawyer Yashwant Kumar Sharma said, “They couldn’t get along. Application under Hindu Marriage Act was filed through me on behalf of Tej Pratap Yadav. I can’t say anything else at this moment.”
The sudden development comes months after reports said that Aishwarya Rai, granddaughter of former Bihar chief minister Daroga Prasad Rai, might contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on an RJD ticket from Chhapra in Bihar.
Tej Pratap has also been dropping hints that he is not getting along well with younger brother Tejashwi, who has emerged as the party’s de facto leader in their father’s absence.
With agency inputs
Source: Zee News