ICYMI, keeping up with his yearly tradition, Lalu Prasad Yadav's elder son, Tej Pratap Yadav, dressed up as Lord Shiva to offer prayers at a temple in Patna today. This is the month of Shravan (Saavan), dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva. Kanwariyas carry holy water from the Ganga to offer to the Lord. In Bihar, people walk all the way from Sultanganj to Deoghar in Jharkhand. Tej Pratap is preparing for that yatra.

But, devotees dress up as devotees. Tej Pratap however dresses up as the Lord, himself. While this may seem a bit bizarre to those who are first seeing the former Health Minister of Bihar in such an avatar, be assured this is hardly an aberration. Cosplaying as gods is something that the politician is apparently most fond of doing.

Bihar: Lalu Prasad Yadav's elder son, Tej Pratap Yadav, dressed as Lord Shiva, offered prayers at a temple in Patna, today. pic.twitter.com/mMjuCydClz ANI (@ANI) July 23, 2019

Tej Pratap has dressed up as a Hindu god on several other occasions. Such is his fondness for dressing up as gods that even his fans are in the know. During his wedding in 2018, his fans gifted Patna a poster with Tej Pratap and his (now-ex) wife Aishwarya Rai as Shiva and Parvati. But more on that later.

Tej Pratap Yadav and his (now-ex) wife Aishwarya Rai as Shiva and Parvati

Yadav's main fascination is with two particular gods; Krishna and Shiva. Krishna because of the Yadav connection. Krishna was raised by a Yadav couple in Vrindavan before he revealed himself as the supreme lord. Tej Pratap, hoping to be the leader of the Yadavs like his father Lalu, knows the importance of being seen as Krishna.

Shiva, because Shiva is the lord himself and has been his daddy's favourite go-to deity. According to dad Lalu, Lord Shiva appeared in his dream one night and asked him to abstain from eating meat. Since then, the meat-loving Yadav Sr hasn't touched meat.



Tej Pratap's obsession with Hindu gods doesn't just end with his supporters comparing him to deities. Last year, Tej Pratap had dressed up as Lord Shiva to offer prayers at a Shiva temple in Patna. The video of him playing a damru and blowing a conch during the aarti in the temple immediately went viral and needless to say, he was trolled.

#WATCH: RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav dressed up as Lord Shiva offers prayers at a Shiva temple in Patna before leaving for Baba Baidyanath Dham in Deoghar pic.twitter.com/gdBViBmofH ANI (@ANI) July 31, 2018

On August 4, 2018, he tweeted another photo of him cosplaying as Shiva in a meditative pose.

In 2017, when he was Bihar's health minister, Tej Pratap had donned the avatar of Krishna to ring in the New Year.

He was seen draped in a shawl, a blue jacket and a red turban with a peacock feather on it, playing a flute at his mother Rabri Devi's home.

Tej Pratap as Lord Krishna

In fact, Tej Pratap has posted many videos and pictures on his Instagram account, of him dressed as Krishna and playing a flute around a herd of cows.

However, Hindu deities aren't the only thing that has the eldest son of Lalu Prasad Yadav in thrall, being on silver screen too has its own place in Yadav's life. Which is why, he even released a poster of his film debut as a solo hero, Rudra - The Avatar on his official Twitter account.

The film never came to be, but that was hardly the only shot he took to come on the silver screen.

Tej Pratap had acted in a Bhojpuri film in 2016 when he was still a cabinet minister in Bihar, and had played the role of a chief minister in the film.

Well, we don't know about his career on the silver screen, but Tej Pratap has definitely created quite an effect in the cosplaying department. Who needs Comic Con?

ALSO SEE | Tej Pratap Yadav dresses up as Lord Shiva again, offers prayers at temple in Patna