Tejaswi has reportedly insisted he will contest from Raghopur.
Two names stand out on the list of 243 candidates that Nitish Kumar announced today for the Bihar elections. Tejaswi and Tej Pratap, the sons of Lalu Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD, will both contest elections for the first time.
Already there is much heartburn.
Tejaswi, 26, former cricketer and widely considered Lalu Yadav's political heir, has reportedly insisted he will contest from Raghopur, in Patna, where his mother Rabri Devi was defeated in the last election by Satish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) in a big upset.
This time, Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and Lalu's RJD are contesting as allies and accommodating Tejaswi in Raghopur has meant antagonising sitting lawmaker Satish Kumar, a powerful local leader who has promptly walked over the rival camp led by the BJP.
As he joined the BJP in Delhi, welcomed by many senior leaders, Satish Kumar said, "Both the RJD and the Janata Dal (United) have fallen prey to the family-first syndrome. I don't have another option. I worked hard in the area, yet a ticket has been denied to me."
The last time an RJD leader quit to join the BJP because Lalu Yadav wanted his seat for someone in his family, he became a union minister. That was one-time Lalu loyalist Ram Kripal Yadav, who was reportedly informed just before the national election last year that Lalu's daughter Misa Bharti would contest from Pataliputra in Patna, instead of him.
Misa, 39, lost, but the Yadav family's zest for elections remains undimmed.
Lalu's other son, Tej Pratap Yadav, 28, had many months ago declared that he wanted to contest from Mahua in Bihar's Vaishali distrcit. And Mahua it is for him.
Sources in the RJD say Lalu Yadav has chosen for both sons, seats that are considered safe and have a significant Yadav population.