Politics is walking into the reality television tower again. Tej Pratap Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad Yadav and a former Bihar minister, is joining the contestant list for Rise & Fall Season 2, according to a promotional clip shared ahead of the show's launch.

He isn't going in quietly.

In the video, Tej Pratap reaches for a favourite metaphor from his political speeches, comparing himself to a banyan tree. "Jab hum udte samay dagmaya aur sab maje le rahe the par woh bhul gaye ke hum bargadh hai bargadh jiska daali se zyaada mazbood hai jadh," he says, which roughly translates to people enjoying his stumble without realising his roots run deeper than his branches. He then declares he's arriving on the show "to stir things up."

His ambitions inside the house sound less like game strategy and more like a manifesto. "Waha ke Penthouse pe kabza nahi karenge darbaar lagayenge aur raj karenge neeche wala Basement ke logowa ke upar," he says, promising not just to occupy the penthouse but to hold court there and rule over whoever ends up in the basement. He caps it with a line that could double as a campaign slogan: "Humara parivaar pura Bihar hai," telling viewers his family is all of Bihar.

A cricketer takes the mic

The other big addition to Season 2 is Virender Sehwag, who's stepping into hosting duties on OTT for the first time. Sehwag has framed the show through a cricket lens, saying, "No match is won before the final ball, and Rise and Fall Season 2 takes that unpredictability to another level." He added that what draws him to the format is the absence of easy wins or fixed positions, a line that sounds as much about batting as it does about reality television politics.

Whether Tej Pratap's basement-and-penthouse rhetoric survives contact with an actual game format remains to be seen. Reality shows built around social hierarchy inside a house tend to flatten grand pronouncements fast, and a politician used to commanding a stage may find the Tower audience less forgiving than a rally crowd.

Rise & Fall Season 2 premieres on September 26 and will stream daily at 12 PM, free on Prime Video and the MX Player Android app. The full contestant list hasn't been detailed beyond Tej Pratap's entry, so it's still unclear who else shares the house with him, or how quickly that banyan tree gets tested.