The internal crisis in the Rashtriya Janata Dal deepened on Monday with one of the party's legislators, Maheshwar Yadav (MLA from Gaighat in Muzaffarpur), demanding the resignation of party’s leader of opposition in state assembly, Tejashawi Yadav. Yadav wanted Tejashwi to resign on ‘moral grounds' after the party's demoralising debacle in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections.

This is was the first time that an RJD MLA has expressed dissidence in Tejashawi Yadav, the son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Speaking to a section of media here on Monday, Maheshwar Yadav said that Tejashawi Yadav ought to resign on moral ground and further went on to target imprisoned RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav saying that he (Lalu Prasad Yadav) had converted the RJD into his own private family fiefdom. “The RJD suffered the worst kind of defeat in the just-concluded Lok Sabha election in state just because of imprudent leadership”, he said.

The RJD party is planning to have a two-day long marathon review meeting, starting from May 28 to May 29 in the residence of former CM Rabri Devi with all legislators to discuss about what went wrong in the Lok Sabha elections. The RJD leader's rebellion alarm gains prominence at this juncture and he also hinted of leaving the party if Tejashawi Yadav failed to concede to his resignation demand.

In 2014, 4 LS seats were won by the RJD despite of a strong Modi wave but the party failed to manage even a single LS seat in 2019 despite being part of the Mahagatbandhan. The Congress Party, an ally of Mahagatbandhan, however, managed to win one - the Kishanganj LS seat.

Chitranjan Gagan, an RJD spokesperson said: “There is no takers for Maheshwar Yadav’s demand as he has only technically been a part of RJD while emotionally being connected with JD (U). He has been sharing dais with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar for a long time despite being an MLA of the party”. He said the proposed 2-day long RJD’s post-poll results review meetings stand as per the schedule on May 28 and 29.