The politics of family breakups

From Uttar Pradesh to Maharashtra, India’s political dynasties have faced splits that reshaped power and parties.

Transcript

00:00R.J.D. Chief Lalu Prasad's daughter Rohini Acharya publicly accusing her brother Tejasri

00:12Yadav of abusing her and pushing her out of the family home has triggered a political

00:16storm in Bihar.

00:17The fight has now gone political and we break down how family feuds have figured in Indian

00:22politics over the years.

00:24Let's start with Uttar Pradesh.

00:25The Samajwadi Party split didn't happen overnight.

00:28By 2016, tensions between Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav were already simmering

00:34with disagreements over candidate selection, organisational control and the party's direction

00:39after Mulayam Singh.

00:40When Akhilesh consolidated control of the party, Shivpal felt sidelined and eventually walked

00:45out.

00:46He formed the Pragatishil Samajwadi Party, Lohia.

00:49Maharashtra's Thakres saw a major breakaway in 2006.

00:52Raj Thakre believed he was being sidelined in the Shiv Sena leadership, especially as

00:57Balasaheb Thakre began positioning son Uddhav as his successor.

01:01Feeling extra of the succession line, Raj quit and formed the Maharashtra of Nirman Sena.

01:06Haryana's Chautalas offer another clear example.

01:09The INLD, once united under Devi Lal and OP Chautala, unraveled in 2018 after a fierce

01:15feud between OP Chautala's sons Ajay and Abhay.

01:18Ajay Chautala and his son Dushyant were expelled for anti-party activities, accused of supporting

01:23rebel candidates and undermining the INLD's official campaign.

01:27They responded by forming the Jan Nayak Janata Party, splitting the Chautala vote and reshaping

01:32Haryana politics.

01:33Tamil Nadu had its own family rupture inside the DMK.

01:37After M. Karnanedi's death, tensions between his son M.K.

01:40Stalin and M.K.

01:41Allagheri boiled over.

01:43Allagheri openly challenged Stalin's authority and criticized senior leaders.

01:47In 2014, he was expelled from the DMK for anti-party activities, effectively ending the

01:52succession battle and cementing Stalin as Karnanedi's political heir.

01:56One of the earliest and most dramatic family fractures happened in JNK, not recently, but

02:02in 1984.

02:03Ghulam Mohd Shah, Sheikh Abdullah's son-in-law and Faruk Abdullah's brother-in-law, led a

02:08political coup within the national conference.

02:10Shah broke away with 12 MLA's, toppled Faruk Abdullah's government and became chief

02:15minister with Congress support.

02:17Family-run parties have shaped Indian politics for decades and so have the cracks within them.

02:21The storm inside the RJD is only the latest reminder that in Indian politics, power doesn't

02:26just shift at the ballot box, sometimes it shifts inside the family first.