Nitish Kumar suffers setbacks as close aide Devesh Thakur quits JD-U
Sources say he quit after being denied a Lok Sabha ticket.
On a day when his bete noire Narendra Modi was campaigning on his home turf, sharing dias with Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, giving poll hunkar (challenge) - it's the name of their Muzaffarpur rally - to the Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar suffered another jolt.
His close aide and Bihar Legislative Council member Devesh Chandra Thakur has resigned from the primary membership of the party, two weeks after he quit as JD-U spokesperson after being denied a Lok Sabha ticket, according to reports. Thakur had served as a minister in the Nitish Kumar government earlier.
The development comes soon after five party members had been expelled. On Thursday, Janata Dal (United) had cracked the whip on five rebel members of Parliament, expelling them from the party for anti-party activities ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Those expelled from the party included Jainarain Nishad from Muzaffarpur, Purnmasi Ram from Gopalganj, Sushil Kumar Singh from Aurangabad and Mangani Lal Mandal from Jhanjharpur. Also, Rajya Sabha MP Shivanand Tiwari was expelled from the JD (U).
JD(U) leader K.C. Tyagi had said, "The party has expelled five rebel Lok Sabha MPs, including sitting Rajya Sabha MP Shivanand Tiwari." Tyagi said that party president Sharad Yadav expelled them but didn't mention the reasons.
Shivanand Tiwari, who was denied a Rajya Sabha re-nomination, had claimed that Bihar chief minister was trying to engineer a split in the RJD.
Thirteen RJD MLAs had walked out of the party. However, nine MLAs later re-joined the party claiming they were tricked into the rebellion.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav had also hit out at the Speaker for recognising the 13 rebel RJD MLAs as a separate group in the Assembly.
Nishad, Ram and Mandal had been suspended by the JD(U) earlier for engaging in anti-party activities.