Bihar elections: Why Nitish Kumar expelled 11 members, including former MLAs, from JD(U)

With barely two weeks to go for the Bihar Assembly elections, Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) supremo Nitish Kumar took a major disciplinary action on Saturday by expelling 11 members from the party.

 

The expelled members included Shailesh Kumar, a four-time MLA from Jamalpur and former Rural Works Development (RWD) minister. These leaders have also been suspended from the primary membership of the JD(U), according to a party’s statement.

 

“The following members are expelled and suspended from the primary membership of the party due to involvement in anti-party behaviour and activities. This order will take immediate effect,” read the statement issued by JD(U) state general secretary Chandan Kumar Singh.

 

Besides Shailesh Kumar, the other leaders who have been expelled include MLAs Shyam Bahadur Singh and Sudharshan Kumar, former MLAs Amar Kumar Singh and Ashma Parveen, and former MLCs Ranvijay Singh and Sanjay Prasad.

 

Though the statement didn’t give details on the “anti-party activities”, a senior JD(U) leader told PTI that the expelled leaders were working against the officially declared candidates of the party and other NDA alliance partners. 

 

“They were defying our ideology,” he said.

 

Polling to the 243-member Bihar Assembly will be held in two phases on November 6 and 11, with the counting scheduled for November 14. The JD(U) and the BJP, the two major constituents of the National Democratic Alliance, have fielded 101 candidates each, while Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) will contest on 29 seats.

 

There were reports of growing disgruntlement in the JD(U) over ticket distribution and seat-sharing arrangements.  Shailesh Kumar, who lost the 2020 Assembly election from Jamalpur, is now contesting as an independent.

 

Shyam Bahadur Singh, the former MLA from Barharia in Siwan, has also decided to contest independently, after being denied ticket.

India