New Delhi, Dec 5 Even as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) continues to grapple with reasons behind a dismal performance in the recently-concluded Bihar Assembly election, party de facto chief Tejashwi Yadav is reportedly missing from the Assembly after a brief presence marked earlier this week.
Even as the House convened for the first times since the state polls for electing a Speaker and the Governor’s address, the Leader of Opposition in the House apparently gave the latter a miss. While he aggressively spearheaded the Mahagathbandhan challenge during the run up to the polls, his absence after the declaration of its result has been a subject of intense debate.
Even before the Assembly session was convened, Tejashwi was out of public eye, with fleeting participations in apparently carefully selected two, or three events.
While some reports suggest a probable Europe sojourn with his family, others speak of a staycation either at a Delhi farmhouse, or in Patna with his parents.
It will augur well for the young leader if such reports are proven wrong; but if true, it will put him in the same boat as that of his alliance partner and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress leader has undertaken several foreign trips since being catapulted into a leadership position, some of which raised eyebrows – for the timings being in-between important political outcomes or engagements.
Soon after the emphatic victory of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2014 and Narendra Modi assuming the office of Prime Minister of India, the Gandhi scion travelled abroad frequently, visiting countries including Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Italy, the UK, the USA and Turkey, among others.
Some of these trips included personal as well as party-related purposes, but coincided with politically sensitive times in India.
Among these, a 60-day trip in early 2015 covered Southeast Asia, where a visit to Myanmar was considered unsafe for such a highly-protected person at that time.
Between 2019 to 2021, during a series of political events, including Parliamentary and state polls, LoP Rahul Gandhi took trips to Italy, Bangkok, London, and other locations, mostly unknown to even party leaders.
In 2021, he reportedly spent almost a month in London during a crucial political phase.
These trips attracted public attention due to their timing and perceived secrecy.
More recent travels reportedly involved visits to Uzbekistan in late 2023 and Latin American countries such as Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina in 2025 for meetings with various political leaders and NGOs.
Other such visits included Malaysia, Vietnam, Dubai, Qatar, and repeated travels to Italy and London.
While frequent visits abroad by a leader of his stature is not unusual, it is the veil of secrecy that attracts attention on numerous occasions.
LoP Gandhi’s foreign visits have occasionally raised issues regarding compliance with security protocols. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has flagged some lapses in following prescribed notification procedures for foreign travel, emphasising the importance of prior information for security arrangements.
These concerns have become points of political debate between parties, with calls for transparency balanced by claims of political motivation.
The current speculations on Tejashwi Yadav’s whereabouts at a time when Bihar Assembly is in session has thus raised similar concerns.
It would thus perhaps augur well for a public figure to maintain a clean and clear itinerary, but of course, without breaching security protocol, if any.
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