Bihar verdict: Sonrise for Lalu Yadav, sunset for Paswan and Manjhi relatives

PATNA: Re-emerging as the single largest party in the Bihar assembly may not have given as much happiness to RJD chief Lalu Prasad as seeing both his sons Tej Pratap and Tejashwi Yadav -make a successful electoral debut.

The victories must have seemed even more precious as his daughter Misa Bharti (Pataliputra) and wife Rabri Devi (Saran) had suffered defeat at the hands of BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Both Tej Pratap (Mahua) and Tejashwi (Raghopur) were locked in a fierce contest with JDU rebels Ravindra Rai (HAM-S) and Satish Kumar Yadav (BJP). The buzz now is that one of them may be the next deputy CM.

Much hullabaloo had followed Tej Pratap and Tejashwi's nomination when the age of elder brother Tej was given as 25 in his affidavit and that of younger Tejashwi was declared 26. Later, partymen clarified their age was declared as stated in voter IDs.

They weren't the only sons winning in the RJD camp. Shivanand Tiwari's son Rahul Tiwari of RJD won from Shahpur by about 15,000 votes. But Lalu's brother-inlaw Anirudh Prasad alias Sadhu Yadav , contesting as a candidate of his own party Garib Janta Dal Secular -lost miserably from the Barauli seat in Gopalganj.

The NDA camp saw a number of political progenies lose the electoral battle, including ex-CM Jitan Ram Manjhi's son Santosh Kumar Suman from Kutumba, exCM Jagannath Mishra's son Nitish Mishra from Jhanjharpur, former minister and HAM-S state president Shakuni Chaudhary's son Rajesh Kumar alias Rohit from Khagaria, former union minister C P Thakur's son Vivek Thakur from Brahmapur and BJP MP from Buxar Ashwini Kumar Choubey's son Arjit Shashwat from Bhagalpur.

LJP , accused of giving party tickets to kith and kin, also lost, including Union minister and LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan's brother Pashupati Kumar Paras from Alauli, Paswan's nephew Prince Raj from Kalyanpur and Paswan's son-in-law Anil Yadav from Bochaha.