At a time when BJP veteran Jaswant Singh has announced to contest the upcoming lok Sabha poll as an Independent candidate, another old guard of the party in Bihar — lal Muni Choubey — too has declared to throw his hat Independently in the lS poll ring. Choubey, a four-time BJP MP and five-time MlA from Buxar is considered close to party patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Apparently hurt over denial of ticket from the Buxar lS constituency, from where lal Muni Choubey had lost the Parliamentary polls last time in 2009, Choubey had declared that he would quit the party and contest the lok Sabha polls as an Independent candidate.
“I will announce my decision tomorrow. I am hurt over the way our top leaders have been neglected by the party. Atal Bihari Vajpayee is being treated like a living dead. Advaniji and Jaswantji have been ignored,” rued Choubey who all along has been a close aide of Vajpayee.
The party has denied ticket to him this time and chose to field another party leader and former Minister in the Nitish Kumar Cabinet, Ashwani Choubey from Buxar lok Sabha constituency.
Ashwani wanted to contest from Bhagalpur Parliamentary constituency as he belongs to that place and has also threatened to contest Independently from Bhagalpur to defeat party candidate and sitting party MP Shahnawaj Hussain.
Ashwani even suggested party leaders to field Shahanawaj Hussain from a Muslim-dominated constituency like Kishanganj. However, later after much suspense, the BJP leadership decided to field Ashwani from Buxar against RJD’s formidable candidate Jagatanand Singh. Though, party sources told The Pioneer that Ashwani on Sunday met the disgruntled party leader lM Choubey for four hours and tried to convince him for rethinking of his decision.
But, the anguished lM Choubey reportedly did not succumb and pointed out that the BJP has been forgetting to uphold the tradition of showing respect to the elders for their contributions. Choubey was elected for the first time from Buxar in 1996. He represented the seat continuously till 2009, until he lost to RJD leader Jagadanand Singh by meagre 2,000 votes. However, party sources said that BJP president Rajnath Singh and Bihar in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan are in constant touch with Choubey to ensure that he doesn’t leave the party.