BJP suspends two lawmakers for supporting Nitish

Patna: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday suspended two of its lawmakers for causing embarrassment to the party leadership by openly canvassing for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Awanish Kumar Singh and Rana Gangeshwar Singh were suspended for indulging in gross indiscipline and working against the party, despite repeated reminders not to do so.

“We have suspended them from the party as they were constantly breaking the party discipline and giving statements to the media, which were against our ideology and guidelines for conduct of the leaders and workers,” state BJP chief Mangal Pandey told the media on Thursday. He said both the leaders had been suspended with immediate effect.

The two lawmakers had turned out to be a bigger nuisance with their statements and had dared the party leadership to initiate action against them.

What, though, apparently worked against them was the way they had been campaigning for Kumar and exhorting the masses to make him the prime minister, even as the BJP is working hard to install its candidate Narendra Modi on the throne of New Delhi.

Two days ago, Rana Gangeshwar Singh canvassed for Kumar in his constituency. “Nitish Kumar is the pride of Bihar and we all should work hard to make him the prime minister,” he said while describing Kumar as a better leader than Modi.

The lawmakers had broken off relations with the BJP in June and were in constant touch with the Bihar chief minister. They had even met the chief minister at his official residence, much to the annoyance of the BJP. Apart from them, there are some lawmakers, who are said to be in touch with the chief minister. Only last month, another BJP lawmaker Vijay Kumar Mishra had invited the chief minister for a party held at his residence and had lunch with him.

The problem for the BJP is that there are too many lawmakers, who want to contest the Lok Sabha elections. However, the party is not in a position to oblige all of them, and as such some of them are cosying up to Nitish Kumar in the hope of getting the Lok Sabha tickets.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the JD-U had contested 25 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, but this time the party needs to field its own candidates as it has severed its ties with the BJP with whom the party had an alliance.

Courtesy: The News