The simmering dissent in the ruling Janata Dal(U) came to the fore on Monday when rebels joined hands with the BJP to take on the three official candidates including JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav for the Rajya Sabha by-poll from Bihar. The election for the three seats is scheduled for June 19.
In addition to Sharad Yadav, the JD(U) fielded diplomat-turned-politician Pawan Verma and Ghulam Rasool Balyawi. State Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, his predecessor Nitish Kumar, State party chief Basistha Narayan Singh and other senior JD(U) leaders were present on the occasion.
However, soon after they left the State Assembly, rebel JD(U) legislators and leaders reached the venue along with three Independent candidates Shabir Ali, Anil Sharma and Dilip Jaiswal (BJP) and filed their nomination papers.Earlier, Shabir Ali was expelled from the JD(U) for heaping praise on Narendra Modi prior to the lok Sabha polls. Anil Sharma, who recently claimed to have refused the offer from JD(U) to contest the Rajya Sabha poll, filed his papers as an Independent candidate.
Sharma had lost the last Parliamentary poll as a JD(U) candidate from Jehanabad constituency against RlSP leader Arun Kumar.The third Independent candidate who filed his papers, Dilip Jaiswal is a BJP MlC and had unsuccessfully contested the last lok Sabha poll on a BJP ticket from Kishanganj constituency.
With the three Independent candidates in the fray, the upcoming Rajya Sabha poll has now taken a curious turn in Bihar as the Independent candidates have claimed that they have the support of over 36-46 rebel JD(U) legislators and some MlAs from both the BJP and RJD. The ruling JD(U) has 117 members and has the support of two Independents, one CPI and four Congress legislators in the House whereas the BJP has a total of 88 and the RJD has 21 MlAs.
The BJP, however, has not revealed who the party legislators would support in the poll, but RJD chief lalu Prasad has declared that his party would not support any candidate and it would also not issue any whip for the party MlAs.“The RJD will neither support any candidate nor will it issue any whip regarding this to the party’s MlAs. The legislators will be free to vote for any candidate as per their conscience,” said RJD chief lalu Prasad.
Earlier, nearly a dozen rebel JD(U) legislators accompanied the three Independents candidates to the State Assembly when they filed their nomination papers. Prominent among those were Gyanendra Singh Gyanu, Poonam Devi, Anil Kumar, Raju Kumar Singh, Neeraj Kumar Singh Bablu, Ravindra Rai who was suspended from the party on Sunday, Renu Devi, Sujata Devi, Amla Devi and Ajit Kumar.
Party sources said that before filing their nomination papers the Independent candidates met senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi and discussed the upcoming Rajya Sabha poll in detail to chalk out their strategy.
Sharad Yadav filed his nomination papers on the seat vacated by lJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan and no Independent has been put up against him.
The cultural ambassador of Bihar Government and former diplomat Pawan Verma has filed his nomination on the seat vacated by BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy-- two Independent candidates Dilip Jaiswal and Anil Sharma would be contesting against him in the poll. On the third seat, vacated by former RJD leader and now BJP MP Ram Kripal Yadav, the JD(U) has put up Ghulam Rasool Balyawi. He will be pitted against Shabir Ali.
When asked about growing dissension in the party Sharad Yadav quipped that he would talk to all factions to end the dissension. Yadav had a meeting with the rebel JD(U) leaders on Sunday, and later suspended one of them Ravindra Rai from the party for six years.Earlier, the leader of the rebel group Gyanendra Singh Gyanu had a meeting with the Paswan on Sunday after their meeting with the JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav.
Political observers said that the meeting of rebel JD(U) leaders and Ram Vilas Paswan held much political significance and “it could take a new political shape in the near future.”Interestingly, soon after the meeting between them, the lJP chief had declared that the next Assembly election would be held in the State in the next six months.