JD (U) expels 16 leaders in crackdown on rebellion ahead of Bihar assembly polls
Some of these leaders are contesting polls against official NDA candidates in the upcoming assembly Bihar assembly election
PATNA:
Patna: The ruling Janata Dal (United) in Bihar has expelled 16 leaders, including a sitting legislator and two former ministers, in a major crackdown on rebellion in the party ahead of the assembly elections. Most of these leaders have entered the poll fray against official National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidates.
The JD(U) charged the rebel leaders with “anti-party activities” and violation of the party ideology and the expulsions were announced in two separate communications issued on late Saturday and on Sunday.
Among those who have been expelled is Narendra Niraj alias Gopal Mandal, the sitting MLA from Gopalpur in Bhagalpur district, who had recently staged a dharna in front of the chief minister’s residence in Patna after learning that the party was going to drop him from the list of candidates. Mandal filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate after he was replaced by Bulo Mandal, an RJD turncoat, by the party.
Besides Mandal, Sanjeev Shyam Singh, a former MLC who is contesting the Gurua assembly seat in Gaya district on a ticket from Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party, and former minister Himraj Singh, who is fighting from Katihar as an independent, were also named in the communication issued on Sunday.
“These expelled leaders were working against the officially declared candidates of the party and other NDA constituents. They were defying our ideology,” a JD(U) leader said, requesting anonymity.
Elections to the 243-member Bihar assembly will be held in two phases on November 6 and 11 and the results will be declared on November 14.
The party has also dismissed Maheshwar Prasad Yadav, a former lagislator from Gaighat in Muzaffarpur who was the runner-up in 2020, and his supporter Prabhat Kiran, both of whom have been voicing discontent over the JD(U) ticket going to Komal Singh, whose father is a party MLC and mother is a Lok Sabha MP of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) headed by Union minister Chirag Paswan.
On Saturday, the party expelled 11 leaders, including former minister Shailesh Kumar, who was a runner-up from Jamalpur in Munger five years ago and is fighting as an Independent against JD(U) candidate Nachiketa Mandal, the son of former MP Brahmanand Mandal.
Former MLAs Shyam Bahadur Singh and Sudharshan Kumar, and ex-MLCs Sanjay Prasad and Ranvijay Singh have been expelled from the JD(U).
