Former Jharkhand Minister Saryu Roy, who filed nomination papers against Chief Minister Raghubar Das from Jamshedpur (East) seat on Monday, said his closeness with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar could be one of the reasons for BJP denying him the ticket.
At least three members of the BJP Parliamentary Board, that approved candidates list, told me that release of my book by Nitish Kumar in 2017 was strongly resented and probably this cost me the party nomination, Roy told PTI.
Roy said he was at a loss to understand this because Kumar had returned to the NDA fold in July 2017 and formed a coalition ministry in Bihar. There was no word on Roy’s claim from the BJP side.
Asked for his reaction on Roy’s allegations that he was denied ticket following his closeness to Bihar chief minister, BJPs general secretary Dipak Prakash said, “I can’t comment on this as it was the decision of Parliamentary Board of the party.”
Kumar, who had gone in 2015 Bihar polls as member of Grand Alliance with RJD and Congress, had left the grouping in July 2017 on the issue of graft charge against his then deputy Tejashwi Yadav and once again joined hands with BJP to form a NDA ministry there.
“The book authored by me was apolitical and getting it released by Nitish Kumar is no crime,” Roy, who tendered his resignation from the Jharkhand ministry to take on the CM at Jamshedupur (East) assembly seat, said. “This (release of the book by Kumar) may be one of the reasons for the BJP not giving me the ticket,” he said.
The book “Samay Ka Lekh”, which was released by Kumar in Patna in December 2017, highlighted importance of public finance and disastrous results of mismanagement of it in modern times with Bihar in its backdrop. Roy claimed JD(U) as well JMM have pledged him support in the election.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das expressed confidence that he would notch up a historic win from Jamshedpur (East) seat following his five years of developmental works in the State. He reiterated BJP will achieve its target of winning 65- plus seats in the ensuing Assembly elections.
“I have full faith in the people of my constituency and I am very much confident that I will win with more than 1 lakh votes than the last election margin of 70,000,” Das said, without mentioning his opponent Saryu Roy, who is contesting as an Independent candidate from the same constituency.