Patna, Apr 14: A day after Nitish Kumar loyalists
adopted a resolution seeking expulsion from the party, five
senior leaders owing allegiance to Samata President George
Fernandes today struck a belligerent note against the railway
minister accusing him of running the organisation "like a
dictator" and charged him with hobnobbing with Laloo Prasad
Yadav's RJD and the Congress.
"Nitish Kumar, by his dictatorial style, has brought the
party to the verge of a split", senior party MP and former
Bihar Unit Chief Raghunath Jha told a press conference here
asserting that the struggle by the genuine party workers to
oust Nitish Kumar would continue.
Flanked by his Lok Sabha colleague Brahmanand Mandal,
Bihar MLAs Bhai Birendra and Ganesh Paswan and MLC P K Sinha,
whom the Nitish Kumar faction had yesterday expelled, Jha
dubbed yesterday's meetings of the state executive, council
and legislature party called by state Convenor Bashist Narain
Singh, MP, as illegal and unconstitutional.
Singh had no right to convene the meetings as he was
appointed Convenor of the state committee as an ad hoc
arrangement to look after the membership drive and facilitate
internal elections of the party, Jha said.
We will organise meetings across the state to tell the
party workers that the Samata is on the brink of a split only
because of Kumar, he said.
Meanwhile, Fernandes, who was in the state capital for a
few hours maintained a stoical silence on the developments in
the party. He refused to speak to waiting media persons
at the airport where he arrived from Dhanbad and at the Patna
railway station where he boarded train for New Delhi.
Bureau Report
