Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, October 13
Walking out of Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) following alleged humiliation by Sushil Kumar Modi, the rebel saffron leaders are seeking votes in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The nine senior BJP leaders who were expelled by the party president Sanjay Jaiswal for six years after they joined LJP are seeking support of the voters in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
They were expelled on Monday evening and today they were seen seeking votes to strengthen the hands of the Prime Minister. In their mass contact programmes in their respective constituencies going to polls in the first phase on October 28,the new entrants to LJP claimed they have deserted BJP because they were humiliated by the Modi of Bihar-deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi.
Former national secretary of the BJP, Rameshwar Chaurasiya who is contesting as LJP candidate from Sasaram was more vocal against Sushil Modi and alleged he was helping the JDU at the cost of BJP. Ms Usha Vidyarthi, former member of the State Women’s Commission and vice-president of the BJP is telling her voters in Paliganj that her election would help strengthen the hands of the Prime Minister.
Senior RSS leader and party vice-president Rajendra Singh, who rebelled against the BJP and joined LJP is contesting from Nokha. He also said his victory would mean more support to Narendra Modi.
The BJP, in a damage control exercise, had expelled Rameshwar Chaurasiya, Rajendra Singh, Usha Vidyarthi, Anil Kumar, Ravindra Yadav (sitting MLA), Ms Shweta Singh, Ms Indu Kashyap, Ajay Pratap, former MLA, Mrinal Shekhar, sitting MLA.
Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi had clarified LJP was no longer a part of NDA in Bihar and the expelled candidates cannot claim votes in the name of Narendra Modi, who is supreme leader of the NDA.
The expulsion orders of the nine BJP leaders were issued by Sanjay Jaiswal. Ironically, he was expelled from the party in 2004 and had joined the RJD to contest the assembly elections as he too was denied nomination by the BJP. He returned to BJP four years later.
The state president of the JDU, Bashistha Naraian Singh, also expelled 15 party leaders who are contesting the assembly elections defying the party discipline. They were denied tickets by the JDU and they joined the LJP and RJD. Those expelled for six years include the former ministers Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, Dadan Singh Yadav, Rameshwar Paswan, former MLAs Ranvijay Singh and Sumit Kumar Singh, former district presidents Amresh Chaudhury (Rohtas) and Shivshankar Chaudhury (Jamui), Ms Kanchan Gupta, former president of JDU Mahila Morcha.
