Awkward Airport Encounter: Silent Standoff Between Tej Pratap and Tejashwi Yadav Goes Viral Ahead of Bihar Polls

New Delhi (India) November 5: It was a scene that could have been written for a family melodrama of the movies, except this one unfolded in an airport with rolling cameras, and vests on sale in a new garment store. The two brothers, fighting elections in the middle of a raucous split in the Lalu household, came across each other apparently unprepared for such an encounter.

Brothers Cross Paths Mid-Interview

Tej was in the middle of an interview with YouTuber Samdish Bhatia for his show Unfiltered by Samdish, when he walked into a FabIndia store “looking” for a bandi. It was pretty standard stuff up until one of his staffers leans in and mutters, “Sir, Tejashwi ji saamne se ja rahe hain.”

The Mahagathbandhan’s chief ministerial candidate and RJD leader Tejashwi was present there with Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani.

Tejashwi greets the YouTuber. He asks him, “Shopping karwa rahe hai bhaiya?” (Are you shopping with brother?). Samdish replies to him, “Woh humko gift de rahe hai.” (He’s giving me a gift.)

And there is Tej Pratap, a few feet away, standing mute and sombre, his face impassive, eyes locked in on the vests as though nothing ever happened as he turns back to the rack.

Viral Moment Before Polls

Now the once inseparable brothers don’t speak a word to one another. A video of the awkward, silent moment has gone viral.

The moment has resonated with people online, the timing of it just a day before the first phase of polling. At a time when the two brothers are campaigning for rival fronts — Tejashwi with RJD helming Mahagathbandhan and Tej Pratap, fronting his JJD — it was another display of growing political as well personal differences in the Yadav family.

Family Rift in Public View

The clip arrives months after Tej Pratap Yadav’s messy public separation from his family. In May, Lalu Prasad Yadav expelled his eldest son from the party and asked him to leave home for his “irresponsible conduct”, which he said went against family values.

That sensational twist came after a Facebook post from one Anushka Yadav was shared from his social media account, Tej Pratap’s claimed he was in relationship with her for last 12 years. Tej Pratap later alleged that his account was hacked and the photographs were “morphed in a way to defame him personally as well as his family”.

Tej Pratap’s New Political Path

Soon after his expulsion, Tej Pratap dusted off his hands and feet after touching the oh-so-venerated Bihari soil, formed another political entity in the name of Janshakti Janta Dal and announced with what could only have been cinematic grandeur that he would “choose death over returning to the RJD.”

If that was not a clear signal of the split between the two Patna-based brothers, Tej Pratap also unfriended his younger brother Tejashwi and sister Misa Bharti on X, sending political watchers into tizzy.

Election Season Heats Up

Now as elections in Bihar draw near, the image of two brothers passing each other (one to shop for a bandi, the other leading his group) might be among most evocative chapters yet in the Yadav family drama.

The JJD chief is contesting from Mahua, while Tejashwi has been leading the Mahagathbandhan’s campaign across the state with support from Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani as the alliance’s deputy CM face.

Bihar Assembly polls will be held in two phases on November 6 and November 11 for which the counting of votes will take place on November 14.