Trouble for Congress in Bihar, party leader claims 11 MLAs could soon defect to JD-U
Senior Bihar Congress leader and former Congress MLA from Lalganj, Bharat Singh, has claimed that 11 MLAs could soon defect to the Janata Dal (United). Bharat Singh said that these MLAs had joined the Congress ahead of the elections after they were denied JD(U) tickets to contest the Assembly polls held in October-November last year.
"The 11 MLAs who could leave the Congress are guided by state president Madan Mohan Jha, Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh and senior leader Sadanand Singh. The nominations from Governor's quota are yet to be done. Madan Mohan and Sadanand are eyeing entry to the Legislative Council," he said.
Bharat Singh said that he was opposed to the idea of contesting elections in an alliance with the RJD. He even accused the trio of indulging in anti-party activities.
READ MORE: RJD seeks to fish in troubled NDA waters in Bihar, claims 17 JDU MLAs 'willing to cross over'
The Congress contested elections as a constituent of the RJD-led grand alliance. The party had contested 70 seats of the 243 seat-strong assembly but won only 19 in the October-November polls. The tally is eight less than the seats won by the grand old party in 2015 as a member of the grouping which also had Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) in it at that time.
Meanwhile, JD(U) spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan has said that the Congress has no leadership in the state and the its workers are left with no option.
The development comes a day after the Congress relieved senior party leader Shaktisinh Gohil from his duties as the AICC's Bihar in-charge and appointed Bhakta Charan Das in his place. Gohil, who had been the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Bihar for close to three years, had asked the party high command to relieve him from the post at the earliest.
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