JD-U suspends 4 rebel MPs
In a bold decision contrary to emerging expectations, the JD(U) on Monday ordered the suspension of four of its rebel MPs in Bihar nearly three weeks after the party’s disciplinary committee recommended severe action against them for their alleged anti-party activities during last year’s Assembly polls.
The suspension of three Lok Sabha members — Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan of Munger, Sushil Kumar Singh of Aurangabad, and Mangani Lal Mandal of Jhanjharpur — and Rajya Sabha member Upendra Kushwaha ordered by JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav would help Bihar chief minister and party stalwart Nitish Kumar to further consolidate his position of authority within the party and send out a loud message of party discipline.
These four MPs were among 11 JD(U) parliamentarians and nearly 200 other leaders of the party in Bihar who were held guilty of gross indiscipline and action potentially damaging to the regional party’s interests during the 2010 Assembly polls that returned Bihar’s ruling JD(U)-BJP alliance to a second term with a thumping three-fourths majority.
By taking the politically risky step of suspending the MPs, the JD(U) chief is said to have followed the wishes of Nitish Kumar, who had appointed a three-member disciplinary committee in Patna to hear charges of anti-party activities levelled against some 400 JD(U) leaders.
The suspension order left several party leaders shocked, while the four affected MPs indignantly said they knew such reaction was in store.
But, significantly, the move for suspension, instead of expulsion, from the party is considered a political masterstroke because, as disciplinary committee chairman Gyanendra Singh Gyanu said it would work in the party’s best interests. This is the first time the JD(U) took disciplinary action in such a big way.
“An expulsion would have freed these MPs from their obligations to the party, allowing them to join whichever party they chose to, while the suspension would still keep them in control, making them obey the party’s whips,” said Gyanu, a JD(U) legislator close to Mr Kumar.
Mr Kushwaha, who has lately intensified his veiled attacks against Mr Kumar, said punitive action was taken at Kumar’s insistence: “Such action was pre-planned and there was a charade of hearing of charges and fixing punishments. There is little democracy in the party”.
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