Hours after Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi broke away from the NDA and announced that he would join the RJD-led Grand Alliance in Bihar, former Bihar Congress chief Ashok Choudhary, along with three other party MLCs, announced they would join the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U), on the night of Wednesday 28 February.
Sensing revolt, Congress state president Kaukab Quadri announced the expulsion of the four party legislators earlier in the day, including former Bihar minister and former state party president Ashok Choudhary. The other three expelled MLCs are Dileep Choudhary, Tanvir Akhtar and Ramchander Bharti.
Ashok Choudhary and his three associates, Dilip Choudhary, Ramchandra Bharati and Tanweer Akhtar, has already been expelled from the party this evening for anti-party activities and they are now trying to save their face by making baseless allegations against the party leadership,”Kaukab Qadri, Acting State President, Congress
The four accused party general secretary C P Joshi of having treated them as "objects" that were supposed to be "used and thrown".
“We are going to join the JD(U) led by Nitish Kumar as he is the finest chief minister that Bihar has so far had,” Choudhary said, adding that Congress president Rahul Gandhi was “one of the finest persons I have ever met,” but that he was “surrounded by people like Joshi.”
He alleged that, earlier, several Congress leaders from the state, such as Anil Sharma, Mehboob Ali Qaisar and Ram Jatan Sinha had been meted out shabby treatment.
I proved my loyalty with my stand against Nitish Kumar, when he rejoined the NDA to form a government with the BJP. As Bihar Congress president, I had led the party to a spectacular success in the 2015 Assembly polls, but humiliation is the only reward given to me.Ashok Choudhary, Former Bihar Congress Chief
Choudhary also praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar by describing him as an "ideal leader".
"For me, Nitish Kumar is my ideal leader," Choudhary said.
The announcement came just hours after former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi broke away from the NDA and announced that he would join the RJD-led Grand Alliance in Bihar.
Manjhi attacked the NDA and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is also JD-U president, over what he called “failure of law and order, prohibition policy and implementation of schemes for poor and marginalised”.
He also alleged that the "faulty" sand mining policy of the Nitish Kumar government had stalled construction activities, thus adversely affecting workers from the Mahadalit section.
"Mahadalits are also getting a rough deal under the prohibition law. But, whenever I tried to take up the matter with the chief minister, he made fun of me," Manjhi alleged.
He said it was necessary to strengthen the hands of a secular leader like RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.
Manji also claimed that the BJP had made no effort to save his government when he had fallen out with Nitish Kumar.
(With inputs from PTI and IANS)
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