Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) national working president Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday dissolved all organisational units in Bihar, including district, block, and panchayat committees as well as units associated with various cells and other affiliated bodies, with immediate effect.
Issuing a press note in Hindi, RJD State president Mangani Lal Mandal said the process of reconstituting the committees at all levels within the State will commence shortly.
Party sources said the decision was taken following the “crushing defeat” of RJD candidate Rekha Kumari in high-profile Bankipur byelection in which the party’s traditional vote banks, Muslims and Yadavs, “voted aggressively” for Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder Prashant Kishor.
The political strategist-turned-politician bagged 64,151 votes and defeated Bharatiya Janata Party’s Neeraj Kumar Sinha by a margin of 19,324 votes. Mr. Sinha finished second with 44,827 votes. The RJD candidate suffered a major setback and secured the third position with just 14,273 votes, losing her security deposit.
The defeat seems to have rung alarm bells and forced serious introspection within the RJD as Ms. Kumari had secured 46,363 votes in the November 2025 Assembly election. In less than nine months, the core voters shifted their loyalties to a new party, JSP, which drew a blank in the 2025 election, party sources said. “In the new organisational units, the party will give opportunity to dedicated workers at the grassroots so that the RJD could be strengthened at the district, block and panchayat levels,” a senior leader said.
After the defeat, senior leader and MLA Bhai Virendra had urged Mr. Yadav to take action against some “irresponsible” leaders maligning the party’s name. He also said there was a need to get rid of the “sycophants” around Mr. Yadav.
Published – August 07, 2026 01:03 am IST
