Taking tough stand against the rebels, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday (October 12) suspended its nine senior leaders in Bihar for six years. The BJP suspended these leaders after they decided to contest the upcoming the Bihar Assembly election against National Democratic Alliance candidates.
It is to be noted that the BJP is contesting the Bihar poll in alliance with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United), Hindustan Awam Morcha (Secular) and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP). As part of the seat-sharing deal reached between the alliance partners, the BJP will field candidates on 115 seats, the JD(U) will contest on 110 seats, while the VIP and HAM(S) will conest on 11 and 7 seats respectively. Notably, Lok Janshakti Party, which is NDA's partner at the Centre, has decided to go solo for the poll.
The leaders suspended by the BJP include Rajendra Singh, Rameshwar Chaurasia, Usha Vidyarthi, Ravindra Yadav, Shweta Singh, Indu Kashyap, Anil Kumar,Mrinal Shekhar and Ajay Pratap.
“You are contesting elections against NDA candidate, which maligns NDA as well as the party’s image. This is against the party principles. Thus, you are suspended for six years for indulging in anti-party activities,” a BJP notice signed by state party chief Sanjay Jaiswal said.
पार्टी विरोधी गतिविधियों के कारण बिहार भाजपा से इन नेताओं को 6 वर्ष के लिए निष्कासित कर दिया गया है। pic.twitter.com/LZWwPjK0GW
— BJP Bihar (@BJP4Bihar) October 12, 2020
Earlier, BJP leader and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi had warned the rebels to not fight elections against NDA candidates or else the party would take strict action against them.
All these expelled BJP leaders were ticket hopefuls, but the saffron party denied them the ticket which forced these leaders to quit the party and contest the election against NDA candidates.
Rajendra Singh, Usha Vidyarthi and Rameshwar Chaurasia have joined the LJP, while Ajay Pratap has joined the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party.
Election to the 243-seat Bihar assembly will be held in three phases on October 28, November 3, and 7. The counting of votes will take place on November 10.
