Bihar BJP MLC sacked for saying CM Nitish Kumar 'stole election', in bid to save NDA boat

In a bid to save the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday sacked one of its Members of the Legislative Council (MLC) Tunnaji Pandey, who had made several offensive comments against the Chief Minister of the State, Nitish Kumar. The comment was apparently causing a strain in the alliance, which is already known to be not very well-knit, especially after the 2021 assembly elections where it emerged that the BJP was the bigger party in the state but Nitish held on to his CM seat as per the pre-poll alliance agreement. 

BJP sacks Bihar MLC for comment against CM Nitish Kumar 

State BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal issued Pandey's order of suspension, in which he pulled up Pandey for having spoken 'in violation of party discipline'. "Despite this, you have again flouted party discipline by your speech which proves that you consider yourself above party guidelines. You are, hence, suspended from the party", Jaiswal stated in the communication. 

He was served a showcause notice by disciplinary committee head Vinay Singh a few days back. “Tunnji Pandey has been served a showcause notice and asked to reply to the notice in 10 days,” Singh had said. When asked about the party notice, Pandey had remarked "I will reply to it when I receive the same. At the most, the party can throw me out. I do not depend on the party for running my household". 

Pandey was served the notice after NDA allies Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) raised the matter with the BJP state president. Senior party leaders back then had hinted that Pandey was most likely to be expelled “as the party leadership doesn’t want to affect the alliance unity in this fragile scenario.”

Continous attack on Nitish Kumar by BJP MLC

CM Kumar has been the target of Pandey for quite some time now. On June 2, instead of taking back his comment, he sparked a fresh controversy with one of his social media posts that said, “Whatever I had said was right that in this election, people had given their mandate to elect Tejashwi Yadav but Nitish Kumar ji came to power by misusing official machinery.” Earlier, Pandey had taken on Kumar through a social media post saying that “Kumar has been a Chief Minister of circumstances”. Former RJD MP Mohd. Shahabuddin was right by saying this but he got punishment. He is not my leader. I’m just a BJP leader and I’ve no connection with the Mahagathbandhan."

Not just this, he had also accused Kumar of being involved in corruption. “Chief Minister has been hand in glove with liquor smugglers since 2009. I’ll expose him and ensure that he lands in jail,” said Pandey while adding that he was not afraid of speaking the truth. “I can speak [the truth] against anybody, whoever he may be,” he had said.

The political situation in Bihar

In 2020, the NDA formed an ruling alliance with a wafer-thin majority. It has 127 MLAs, five more than the majority mark, while the Mahaghatbandhan or the Grand Alliance (GA) has 110 MLAs in Bihar’s 243-member assembly. A lot of it is because the Janata Dal (United) did much worse than was expected, and that has since the very beginning of the tenure weakened the party's and the party leader Nitish Kumar's say in the affairs. Even his position as the Chief Minister of the state has been questioned by many, on which Kumar had even reacted, "I was unwilling but the BJP asked me to take the post." Long-time Nitish ally and former Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi was also relieved of the post by the BJP and given a Rajya Sabha seat instead, while the party appointed two Deputy CMs to Nitish.

All in all, the two main parties- the BJP and the JDU are going through a rough patch, and that is being seen as an opportunity by RJD and the Mahaghatbandhan, which is next in line to form the government if the alliance falls. 

(Credit-ANI/PTI)