It is scheduled to be followed by cameras for the show. He has also taken on the persona of a saint on Insta. None of this will be surprising if you’ve been scrolling enough.
It is fitting that the biggest stars of the regional entertainment industry will end up in ‘Bhojpuri Bawaal’, a show that focuses on following the lives of celebrities. Politician Tej Pratap Yadav has also made the cut, only the latest in his parallel universe as a social media phenomenon, hopping in all flavors but denouncing worldliness. “It’s my true self,” he says.
A former Bihar minister and current president of his party with no seats in Vidhan Sabha, Tej Pratap Yadav is no stranger to being followed. Be it the eldest son of veteran socialist leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, or a vlogger with a dizzying array of avatars, ‘Tejo Bhaiya’, as his followers call him, packs a legion.
He is, at once, the mall-hopping guy who loves big cars, the spiritual mind who shares everyday thoughts, and… A ghost hunter chases the supernatural through the overgrown trees behind his house.
Singers and actors Pawan Singh, Nirahua and Amrapali Dubey are among those who will vie for attention with Tej Pratap in the reality show that may air in June.
The format is simple: follow participants through their daily lives without any tasks, exclusions or artificial drama. The promo on JioHotstar Reality and its Instagram pages showed Tej Pratap sitting on a high-backed throne-like chair. The comment said: “Paturan aa rahi hain janta ka pyaar, entertainment bishumar(Coming to gather people’s love, L Entertainment without limits.)
For Tej Pratap, social media, and now its extension through this show, comes at a time when he is still expelled from his father’s party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), over a personal relationship that the family did not approve of. There has been some melting there, but the distance remains.
However, his social media following, which stands at over 30 lakh across platforms, is hundreds of times more than the 35,000 votes he managed to draw when the BJP and the JD(U)-led NDA retained power in the state in last year’s elections.
“The media only shows fights and politics. But what I eat, how I live, how I interact with people in the villages – that’s all in my vlogs. The audience loves this authentic, uncomplicated version of me,” he said of his online persona.
Undeterred by the loss in the vote, his new Instagram page quietly appeared in March 2026: @santtejpratapyadav. Saffron robes. Rudraksha Beads. Videos on Lord Shiva, the meaning of holy ash, and the impermanence of all earthly things. Tej Pratap has only been continuing his digital folklore which he started around 2015, and has not paused since then.
And his policies are shifting in the meantime
His two worlds collided when, in May 2025, a post appeared on Tej Pratap’s verified Facebook page showing a photo of him with a woman and claiming a 12-year relationship. Since Tej Pratap was in the midst of a messy divorce, this post went viral within hours.
He initially claimed that his account had been hacked and the photos had been wrongly edited. The next day, Lalu Yadav announced his expulsion from the RJD for six years, due to “irresponsible activities, public conduct and conduct”. A month later, Tej Pratap admitted that he had made the post himself and deleted it under intense family pressure. He’s talked about heartbreak, too.
He formed the Janshakti Janta Dal (JJD) in September 2025 and contested the Bihar Assembly elections from Mahwa, where he finished a distant third.
By late May 2026, during a visit to the Vindyavasini temple in Mirzapur, he told reporters that Yogi Adityanath and the BJP would win the 2027 Uttar Pradesh elections, even dropping hints of a possible alliance with the saffron party. But that’s just the political side of the coin.
There he also explained: “I did not come here for politics. I came to Goddess’s Abode to make a vlog. These days, the public does not watch television media; everyone watches my content on their mobile phones.”
“If you want to see my real lifestyle, visit my social media accounts,” he added with a like, share and subscribe appeal.
“Hello friends”
On his social media accounts, barely one or two of the feeds touch politics directly. On X (formerly Twitter), he has 1.7 million followers as of May 29, 2026, and his record remains mostly political, even combative. This is the case with his official Facebook page.
Instagram hosts his main lifestyle page as well as his new “Sant” page.
However, he is the closest thing to being a reality TV star.TY Vlogs, and its predecessor “LR Vlog” – the initials of his parents, Lalu and Rabri.
These channels offer seemingly unscripted glimpses into his world. In one video, he takes viewers on a tour of his family’s apartment complex, stopping at the shed where livestock feed is stored. Like his father, he moves between elite politician and traditional milkman.
Sitting on a low wooden stool to milk a newly arrived cow, he speaks to his videographer: “Arey, angle sahi lo! Camera idhar ghumao, tab na janta ko asli gau seva dikhega!” (Get the right angle! Turn the camera here, and only then will the audience see the real cow service!)
Other videos document a train ride on the Tejas Express, where a steward presses the call button and reviews his catering meal in the style of a professional food influencer. Then there is a lengthy interrogation of the ice cream seller.
“Kaun kaun hi tumheer pas flavour? Choco par hai?” (“What flavors do you have? Do you have a chocolate bar?”) Tej Pratap speaks to the salesman who looks visibly stunned in his trademark tone, adopting the same vein as his opening lines – “Hello friends”, “Hello guys!” – In the typical influential talk.
He refused to buy a single stick on the side of the road, and ordered the seller, “Chalo, pura thela leke andar Bungalow mein Chalo!” He requests that the entire carriage be moved to his house. Minutes later, the vlog cuts to a vendor serving his full security personnel behind closed government gates, as Tej Pratap takes a bite into the camera and declares to his viewers, taking on the avatar of a food vlogger: “This is a completely authentic chocolate bar. Nothing better than this in the heat of summer.”
When the senior channel ‘LR’ crossed 1 lakh subscribers, he went to the extent of putting up huge hoardings all over Patna to celebrate the milestone.
After losing the election in November 2025, he launched TY Vlogs, using his initials. The channel description promises “an authentic look into the daily lifestyle of Tej Pratap Yadav… Bihar culture and heritage, village lifestyle and ground reality, travel vlogs, local foods and authentic experiences.”
He leaned into this during a vlog in the village, going back to his ancestral roots. Walking through the corridors he remembers: “Phulwaria ki mitti aur bachpan ki yaadein, hamesha dil ke sabse kareeb rehti hain. Yahan humarepita-ji ne sangharsh kiya, sanskar dia… Aaj kal sab temporary hai, bar ye mitti permanent hai.” [‘The soil of Phulwaria (in Gopalganj, Bihar) and childhood memories are always closest to the heart. This is where my father struggled and gave us values… Everything is temporary these days, but this soil is permanent.’]
My faithful servant
Even though its ‘Sant’ title is new, the religious content belongs entirely to the Tej Pratap brand. In 2017, while he was still serving as Bihar’s health minister under Nitish Kumar, he appeared in the… Public occasions dressed as Lord Krishna.
In July 2018, during the auspicious month of Shravan, news cameras captured him dressed as Lord Shiva, his skin smeared with ash, offering prayers at a Patna temple before leaving for Baba Baidyanath Dham in Deoghar.
Later that year, he posted a video of himself standing in a chariot in the name of Arjuna, with Krishna’s character holding the reins. In a matching caption, he described his grand plan to “make Arjun – Tejashwi Yadav – sit on the throne of Hastinapur and go to Dwarka myself”.
His younger brother Tejashwi, known for his measured style, is now the undisputed leader of the RJD. Tej Pratap, who is closest to his father’s style of rural nonchalance, appears to have retreated into his own version of spiritual quest, via @santtejpratapyadav.
Sitting cross-legged in bright saffron robes, heavily adorned with rudraksha beads and smeared with holy ash, he delivers a sharp poetic critique of worldly possessions: “Basma (ashes) toh shankar ji ka shringar hai, bhai. Is sansar mein sab maya hai. Ek din, sab kuch rakh ho jana hai. Jab khale haath aye. Toh khale hath hai jana hai… toh gamand kis Pat ka?” [‘Ash is Lord Shiva’s adornment. Everything in this world is an illusion. One day, everything will turn to ash. You came here empty-handed, and will leave empty-handed, so why the pride?’]
Arish Chhabra is an associate editor on the Hindustan Times online team, where he writes news reports and explanatory features, as well as overseeing the site’s coverage. His career spans nearly two decades across India’s most respected newsrooms in print, digital and broadcast. He has reported, written, and edited across formats—from breaking news and live election coverage, to analytical long-reads and cultural commentary—building a body of work that reflects editorial rigor and a deep curiosity about the community for which he writes. Areesh studied English Literature, Sociology and History along with Journalism at Punjab University in Chandigarh, and began his career in that city, eventually moving to Delhi. He is also the author of Little Big City: What Life is Like from Chandigarh, a collection of critical essays originally published as a weekly column in the Hindustan Times, which examines the culture and politics of a city that is much more than just its famous architecture – and in doing so, holds up a mirror to modern India. During his stints at BBC, The Indian Express, NDTV and Jagran New Media, he has worked across formats and languages; Mainly English, as well as Hindi and Punjabi. He was part of the crack team for the BBC Explainer project which was replicated around the world by the broadcaster. At Jagran, he developed editorial guides and trained journalists on integrity and quality content. He has also worked at the intersection of journalism and education. At the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad, he developed a website to streamline academic research in management. At Bennett University’s Times School of Media in Noida, he taught students the craft of digital journalism: from newsgathering and writing to social media strategy and video storytelling. Having moved from small town to larger town to megalopolis for education and work, his intellectual passions lie at the intersection of society, politics, and popular culture—a perspective that guides his writing and worldview. When he’s not working, he’s constantly reading long-form journalism or watching cerebral content, sometimes both at the same time.Read more
