Patna: Ahead of assembly elections in Bihar,
intra-party squabbles have surfaced in ruling BJP with its
senior leaders, including actor Shatrughan Sinha and
former state president Gopal Narayan Singh charging the party
leadership with "slighting" them.
Sinha, once a star campaigner of the party, was peeved at
being nominated as just a member of the state campaign
committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.
"A coterie has effectively taken over the party and even
the party national leadership has accepted it without any
interference...we feel sidelined", Sinha said, when approached
for his comment on his inclusion as member of the state
campaign committee.
"It is Sushil Kumar Modi who calls the shots within the
party now with the help of some national leaders in Bihar,
another party leader said" pleading anonymity.
Former state BJP president Singh said "Modi is
destroying the party culture with the aim to turn it into his
own pocket borough.
Singh identified Modi as "root cause of the problems
within the BJP in Bihar.
Another senior party leader Chandra Mohan Rai, a former
state minister, said "" I feel thoroughly marginalised in the
present set up...leaders much junior to me are calling the
shots in the party today..I have been a member of the state
election committee since 1995, but I am no more its member
this time.
When contacted, state BJP chief C P Thakur admitted
that there were "some problems" within the party "but we are
studying it case by case for reaching a conclusion.
“It will not affect BJP`s poll prospects in
Bihar", he said.
PTI
