Soon after the six rebel JD(U) MlAs met party president Sharad Yadav on Sunday and expressed their resentment over the way party leader and former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was ‘running the party and the Government from behind the scenes’, party acted tough and suspended one rebel MlA. Amid growing dissent in the ruling party, suspense over name of party candidates for three Rajya Sabha seats continues.
“Yes, we met the party president and have expressed our feelings to him. Now he will talk to other party leaders and address our grievances, otherwise we’d be free to chart our own course of future strategy,” said one of the rebel JD(U) MlAs Poonam Devi.The other rebel MlAs who met the party president were Gyanendra Singh Gyanu, Raju Singh, Ravindra Rai, Anil Kumar and Neeraj Kumar ‘Babloo’. They had a closed door meeting with Yadav at the State guest house for over an hour. Party MlA Madan Sahni too had earlier raised banner of revolt against Kumar’s dictatorial style of functioning.
Significantly, sending tough message towards rebel MlAs, Yadav suspended party MlA from Mahua Assembly constituency Ravindra Rai. Rai on Saturday had attacked Kumar openly calling him a dictator and arrogant leader.“I welcome and honour my suspension from the party. let the party suspend all those who are rebelling against Kumar’s dictatorial style of functioning … Kumar is a coward leader who practises pressure politics,” charged Rai.
Interestingly, the future political stake for Yadav too is very high as he himself would be one of candidates for the three Rajya Sabha seats vacated after BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy, lJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan and former RJD leader (now BJP MP) Ram Kripal Yadav won the recently concluded lok Sabha polls. The RS poll, if need be, is scheduled to be held on June 19.
As the RS poll would be held separately, only the JD(U) has numbers to elect all three candidates on its own. Several names have started doing rounds for the RS seats. Anil Sharma, Shakuni Chaudhury who recently deserted the RJD to join the JD(U), Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmad and others were in talks. However, Anil Sharma, who earlier had lost the lok Sabha polls from Jehanabad constituency claimed to have refused the offer for the RS seat.
Kumar, who is famously known for springing surprises in such political situations, has not open his cards and the suspense continues over it. Earlier, Kumar had surprised everyone by nominating Ram Nath Thakur, Harivansh and Kehkashan Praveen for the Rajya Sabha. He also repeated the same by handpicking Jitan Ram Manjhi as his successor in the State.
Meanwhile, the rebel candidates have threatened that they might support someone else in the RS poll to spoil the chances of official party candidates. Former JD(U) leader and Rajya Sabha member Shabir Ali has got the nomination forms, so did BJP leader CP Thakur. Thakur, though, is currently the Rajya Sabha member is believed to have purchased the form for someone else.
“Yes, I’ve got the nomination form for the Rajya Sabha seat but will not reveal my cards now … I am assured support from both JD(U) and BJP leaders … let’s see how it unfolds,” said Shabir Ali.
However, in another interesting turn of events, the JD(U) top leadership is reportedly have decided not to field any candidate this time for the RS bypoll which ultimately would scuttle the chances of party president Sharad Yadav too. It is learnt that differences have cropped up between party president Yadav and Nitish for some time.
“Now, the party has thrown the onus on Yadav to defuse the rebel crisis in the party and get himself elected to the Rajya Sabha,” said a JD(U) leader. Yadav had lost the lS poll from Madhepura constituency to RJD candidate Pappu Yadav.
Party MlC and first among those to raise banner of revolt against party leadership, Neeraj Kumar indicated that the JD(U) might not contest the RS bypoll as the vacating seats did not belong to the party. Neeraj now has become soft in his attack towards party leadership after he had a “very positive” talk with the former Chief Minister recently.
“I am requesting the party not to field any candidate as the seats did not belong to us. The three seats, which got vacant were that of the BJP, lJP and RJD,” said Neeraj on Saturday.The party may announce names of three party candidates for the RS seats either on late Sunday night or on Monday.Ever since expansion of the Manjhi Government, voices of dissent are giving sleepless nights to the ruling party. Two party legislators Neeraj Kumar and Sanjay Singh had earlier quit from their posts in protest. On Thursday, the JD(U) even had dissolved its State executive committee with immediate effect.
The rebel JD(U) leaders have been demanding expulsion of those party leaders like lallan Singh, RCP Sinha, lallan Saraf and Sanjay Gandhi accusing them of running the party on behalf of the former Chief Minister. “They are not running but ruining the party,” charged party MlA from Barh, Gyanendra Singh Gyanu.