आदरणीय सोनम वांगचुक जी,

आपसे विनम्र निवेदन है कि अपना आमरण अनशन स्थगित कर दीजिए। इस संवेदनहीन सरकार से आपकी नैतिक लड़ाई को समझने या सच्चे संवाद की उम्मीद बहुत कम है।

आपके पीछे खड़े हर युवा को वचन है कि शिक्षा और हर सड़ते तंत्र के सवाल हम सड़क से संसद तक उठायेंगे। जय हिंद!

— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 16, 2026

The Bihar Leader of Opposition’s (LoP) absence has not gone unnoticed in the Assembly too, with Agriculture Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha on Thursday asking Speaker Prem Kumar to “find out the whereabouts” of the LoP and “inform the House”. While some RJD leaders defended their leader by saying he was attending to his ailing father and the party’s national president Lalu Prasad in Delhi, others said Tejashwi was in Europe and was expected back in Delhi on Friday.

This is not the first time Tejashwi has been accused of pulling off a “vanishing act”. In the last six years, the RJD leader has been out of Patna on more than six occasions during crucial political developments that warranted his presence and intervention.

The Opposition felt his absence in the Monsoon Session of the Assembly that concludes on Friday. The Samrat Choudhary-led government had a smooth run through the brief session despite pressing concerns regarding “empty state coffers”. The government faced virtually no pushback or questions on any of the 12 Bills introduced, including a private university Bill.

“The state government was also planning to introduce a bill to delink undergraduate colleges from state universities. Ideally, we should have raised our voice against it. However, the government withdrew the proposed Bill at the last moment only due to internal resistance within the NDA. Had Tejashwi ji been present in Patna, we would have put up a much stronger performance both inside and outside the Assembly,” said an RJD MLA.

“One of our most vocal spokespersons, Mrityunjay Tiwari, quit the party in Tejashwi’s absence. We also lack a leader of substance to campaign for our candidate in the coming Bankipur bypoll. Jan Suraaj Party leader Prashant Kishor has been drawing a strong response, despite our party finishing as the runner-up in the last two elections. The NDA has consistently weaponised Tejashwi ji’s sabbaticals, questioning his commitment as the Leader of the Opposition,” said another party MLA.

Some other instances of Tejashwi not being present at crucial moments for his party:

December 2025–January 2026: Following the Bihar Assembly polls in November 2025, the newly elected legislature convened for its inaugural Winter Session in early December. After attending the opening day on December 1, Tejashwi left Patna the following day for a month-long family trip to Europe and was not back until mid-January 2026. The BJP-led NDA launched a “laapata (missing)” campaign against the LoP on social media, mocking his decision to take an extended vacation immediately after an election defeat. Upon his return, Tejashwi maintained that he had been monitoring state affairs remotely and taking a brief pause from active commentary.

December 2024: After making a brief appearance on the opening day of the Winter Session, Tejashwi left for New Delhi and remained absent for the remainder of the session. NDA ministers routinely targeted his empty seat in the House, questioning how the LoP could skip active debates.

June–July 2024: Following the Lok Sabha election results, in which the RJD won just four of the 40 seats in Bihar, Tejashwi left for a 10-day trip abroad. Due to his travel schedule, the party was forced to advance its 30th Foundation Day celebrations to July 1, while Tejashwi addressed party cadres virtually from outside the country on July 5. He subsequently missed the opening days of the Monsoon Session. BJP and JD(U) leaders targeted the RJD over his absence, asking sarcastically whether he was “mediating global conflicts” while state issues went unaddressed.

March 2021: The Assembly session saw the Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021, being passed amid chaos and physical altercations between the police and Opposition MLAs. Several RJD MLAs were hospitalised. However, immediately after the House got adjourned, Tejashwi left for New Delhi and remained in the national Capital even as the party dealt with the political fallout. Ruling alliance leaders accused Tejashwi of inciting protests on the Assembly floor and leaving his cadre to handle the legal and political consequences alone.

December 2019–January 2020: The RJD planned a series of rallies across Bihar, starting from West Champaran, in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC). After leading a rally in Patna on December 21, Tejashwi stayed off the grid for nearly three weeks during the peak of the movement. His sudden absence left alliance partners, including the Congress, without a clear, coordinated strategy on the ground.

September–October 2019: Torrential downpours caused severe flooding across Patna, leaving entire residential areas submerged and stranded without power or clean water for over a week. During the crisis, Tejashwi was out of the state: first attending a seminar in Goa and later visiting Rewari, Haryana, for a family event. Although he posted critiques of the government on social media, a leader such as Pappu Yadav, without any political affiliation at the time, gained widespread public praise for physically wading through floodwaters to distribute relief. It drew a sharp contrast with Tejashwi’s absence.

State BJP vice-president Santosh Pathak said the NDA’s criticism of Tejashwi centres on framing him as a “part-time politician or a work-from-home leader”.

RJD national spokesperson Subodh Kumar Mehta defended the LoP, saying it was “typical of the NDA to look for a scapegoat by targeting an individual for its own failures”. “Our leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav undertakes foreign trips for both legislative and personal reasons,” Mehta told The Indian Express. “Rather than raising questions about his absence from Patna, the NDA should answer why state coffers have run dry and why students have taken to the streets. We, as a political party, raise our concerns on every legitimate forum. Targeting an individual is a weak strategy by the NDA.”

Mehta dismissed the claim that his party was silent on the student protests. “Our student wing is working with university students and on Sunday, Sudhakar Singh and I, along with the RJD cadre, will join a dharna with students at Gardani Bagh. RJD MPs and cadre were there in support of the students’ issue at the sit-in of the INDIA bloc outside the PM’s residence. The RJD has also participated in the Jantar Mantar protest, and our accounts on X and Facebook are regularly posting about the protests.”

The RJD spokesperson added, “The parliamentary system works as an institution. The RJD functions as an institutional machinery rather than just an individual voice. We have a whip system to follow, a party line regardless of the leader sitting in the House. The ruling party cannot answer questions on NEET student protests, farmers’ apathy, unemployment, and employees, especially Anganwadi sisters, not getting paid for 11 months. The issue of rampant corruption and crime is uncontrollable. That is why the ruling party is asking for Tejashwi ji.”