Political / 5 out of 8 RJD MLCs join Janata Dal (United)

Patna: In a major jolt to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ahead of Legislative Council polls in Bihar, five sitting party MLCs joined chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) on Tuesday. The assembly polls in the state are also due in October-November.

The RJD, which has eight MLCs, is now left with only three MLCs. The MLCs who defected to JD(U) are Radha Charan Shah (2015), Sanjay Prasad (2015), Dilip Rai (2015), Md Kamar Alam (2016) and Ranvijay Kumar Singh (2016).

All the MLCs who joined the JD(U) do not face the anti-defection law as they form the two-third of the total number of MLCs of the RJD. A letter about formal joining of the RJD MLCs was forwarded by chief whip of the JD(U) Reena Devi to acting chairman of the legislative council.

Tuesday’s development has made the JD(U) with 21 MLCs as the single largest party in the 75-member council, which presently has a strength of 46 as 29 seats are lying vacant. The BJP has 16 MLCs in the council and also has the support of an independent MLC. The polling for nine seats is schedule on July 6.

The development comes at a time when the RJD is facing rough weather and has received ultimatum from smaller parties of the grand alliance. On Monday, former RJD MLA from Raghopur Bhola Rai along with his supporters demonstrated outside former chief minister Rabri Devi’s house protesting the move to give ticket to Tej Pratap Yadav for council seat. Tej Pratap is currently a MLA from Mahua. The protesters threatened to jeopardise the chances of election of Tejashwi Yadav from Raghopur in forthcoming assembly elections.

JD(U) sources said that in coming months, more people will leave RJD as people are not “happy with leadership”.

Earlier on June 16, a former JD(U) MLC Javed Iqbal Ansari had joined the RJD.

The bickering in the grand alliance in Bihar has already intensified with Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) led by former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi issuing an ultimatum that a coordination committee should be formed in the coalition by June 25, in an apparent bid to mount pressure on the senior ally RJD to start seat sharing talks with the smaller allies.

If HAM-S sources are to be believed, Manjhi is contemplating re-joining the JD(U).