PATNA: Sanjay Yadav, 41, has long been a surging presence in the RJD. In recent weeks, his name has surfaced at the centre of the turbulence in the ‘first family’ of the party’s founder and former CM, Lalu Prasad. Matters came to a head on Saturday, when Lalu’s daughter Rohini Acharya publicly quit politics and severed ties with the household, blaming Sanjay.

A post-graduate in computer science from Mahendragarh, Haryana, Sanjay worked as a software engineer in Delhi before meeting Tejashwi in 2012. Former Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav says his son Abhimanyu introduced them. Ram Kripal, then in the RJD, was known as ‘Lalu’s Hanuman’.

The Sanjay-Tejashwi association strengthened after the 2015 assembly election, when the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan campaign was designed by Prashant Kishor, and Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) was part of the alliance; the Mahagathbandhan had formed the government.