Patna: Leaders of the Janata Dal United and the BJP on Friday tried to drive a wedge between Lalu Prasad's sons Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, and said the RJD chief had unfairly sidelined Tej Pratap even though he is the elder brother.

With Lalu in jail and Tej Pratap missing from key RJD events, the political grapevine has been abuzz over the purported power struggle in the RJD first family - which the party and the brothers have tried to deny with little success - and the NDA leaders' taunts were seen as an effort to stoke the embers to fuel a raging fire.

"Tejashwi Yadav is trying to run the party on his terms and conditions but it is Tej Pratap who should run the party being the elder brother. It seems the RJD has kept all the social norms aside by giving the baton in the hand of Tejashwi who is the younger brother," JDU chief spokesperson Sanjay Singh said.

Sanjay claimed that Tej Pratap has been left hamstrung without any decision-making power, and that the feud between Lalu's sons has become so bitter that the brothers don't even want to see each other's faces.

The JDU spokesperson also declared that the culture of sidelining the elder brother was inculcated by Lalu himself who never promoted his own elder brother, the late Gulab Chand Yadav, who had helped the RJD chief a lot.

Another JDU leader, MLC Neeraj Kumar, also batted for Tej Pratap. "If you will compare the educational qualification and margin of winning their respective Assembly seats, Tejashwi does not stand anywhere in front of Tej Pratap. The elder son is far ahead than Tejashwi in terms of talent so it is but obvious that power should be given in the hand of Tej Pratap," Neeraj said.

BJP leaders also jumped in to stir the pot.

"Lalu Prasad never gave an opportunity to the elder brother and never tested his talent; he only promoted the younger son," declared state health minister Mangal Pandey. "He should have made Tej Pratap the leader of Opposition as well the deputy chief minister."

In response, RJD MLA and former minister Shiv Chandra Ram said the NDA leaders better worry about their own problems rather than wasting energy on such topics. He also claimed that all is well in the RJD family and there are no differences.