Sitting MLA among 16 rebel leaders expelled from JD(U) in poll-bound Bihar

Sitting MLA among 16 rebel leaders expelled from JD(U) in poll-bound Bihar

Cracking down on rebellion in the party ahead of the assembly elections, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) expelled 16 leaders, including a sitting MLA and two former ministers, most of whom have entered the fray against official NDA candidates.

The expulsions have been announced in two separate communications issued, one on late Saturday and the other on Sunday, in which the rebel leaders have been charged with "anti-party activities" and violation of the ideology of JD(U).

Among those who have been expelled is Narendra Niraj alias Gopal Mandal, the sitting MLA from Gopalpur in Bhagalpur district, who remains in the news, mostly for wrong reasons.

Mandal had recently staged a dharna in front of the CM's residence in Patna when he learnt that the party was going to drop him from the list of candidates.

After being rounded up by police, Mandal, against whom local JD(U) MP Ajay Mandal lodged an FIR a few months ago for making defamatory remarks in public, waited, hoping that the party would consider him for a fifth consecutive term from his seat.

However, when the party ticket went to Bulo Mandal, an RJD turncoat, Mandal filed his nomination papers as an Independent candidate.

Besides Mandal, others named in the communication issued on Sunday are Sanjeev Shyam Singh, a former MLC who is contesting the Gurua assembly seat in Gaya district as the candidate of Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party, and former minister Himraj Singh, who is fighting from Katihar as an Independent.

The party has also dismissed Maheshwar Prasad Yadav, a former MLA 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 greenhorn Komal Singh, whose father is a party MLC and mother is MP of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) headed by Union minister Chirag Paswan.

Earlier, the party had expelled 11 leaders, including former minister Shailesh Kumar -- the 2020 runner-up from Jamalpur in Munger who is fighting as an Independent against JD(U)'s official candidate Nachiketa Mandal, the son of former MP Brahmanand Mandal.

Besides, former MLAs Shyam Bahadur Singh and Sudharshan Kumar, and ex-MLCs Sanjay Prasad and Ranvijay Singh have been expelled from JD(U).

Reacting to the development, a senior JD(U) leader said, "These expelled leaders were working against the officially declared candidates of the party and other NDA constituents. They were defying our ideology." The 243-member Bihar assembly will go to polls in two phases, on November 6 and November 11, with the results set to be announced on November 14.