Tejashwi Yadav is the son of former Chief Ministers of Bihar – Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi – and the chief ministerial candidate for the opposition Mahagathbandhan in the state. The 30-year-old Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader is currently the Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing Bihar Assembly. Between 2015 and 2017, Tejashwi Yadav served as Deputy Chief Minister after being elected MLA from Raghopur. Notably, he is the youngest leader of opposition all over the country.
He is also a former cricketer and was part of the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008. He didn’t get a chance to play and remained on the reserve bench of the team for the entire seasons from 2008 to 2012. In 2009, he was also selected for the state level Jharkhand cricket team.
Reports say that in 2010, while still pursuing his cricketing career, Tejashwi Yadav began taking active interest in state politics and began to campaign for the RJD. In the 2015 state elections, he contested from Raghopur and won with a good margin. Later, he was appointed Deputy Chief Minister and held the portfolios of public works, forestry and environment. But that government was not to last as Nitish Kumar exited the Mahagathbandhan citing differences.
The Central Bureau of Investigation registered a case against Tejashwi Yadav and other members of his family in 2017 as the Enforcement Directorate launched an investigation into suspected money laundering in a 2004 corruption case involving Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation. However, he received relief in 2018 in the case from the Delhi High Court which maintained that the youngest son of Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi could not have played a role as the accusation was levelled on him when he was just 14.
Yadav has consciously kept away from excessive references to his father lest it hurt the chances of the Mahagathbandhan as it faces Nitish Kumar already troubled by another son, Chirag Paswan.