Four Congress state council members, including former party president Ashok Choudhary announced that they would quit the party to join Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United).
The four Congress MLCs - Ashok Choudhary, Tanvir Akhtar, Dilip Choudhary and Ram Chandra Bharti - said they have also requested deputy chairman of the state Council to recognise them as a separate group and make separate seating arrangements in the House.
However, the state Congress President (in-charge) Kaukab Quadri said he has expelled all four leaders from the party.
“On several occasions I’ve been humiliated by the party. Our name was not even included in the list of star campaigners for the upcoming bypoll on three seats, one Lok Sabha (Araria) and two Assembly seats (Jehanabad and Bhabhua). So there was no point in remaining with the party with an insult,” said Mr Choudhary whom was state education minister in the Grand Alliance government. He also said though Congress president Rahul Gandhi was a nice person and leader, “people like C.P. Joshi and others have surrounded him to mislead”.
Mr. Choudhary also sang paeans to JD(U) president and chief minister Nitish Kumar. “I’ve never seen a chief minister like Nitish Kumar against whom no charge of corruption or anything has ever been levelled. So impressed with his leadership qualities, I along with three of my party leaders, have decided to join JD-U,” he said. He also said that with them joining the JD(U), the people from weaker section of the society would be happy and galvanize towards JD(U).
Meanwhile, political pundits of the state said that ever since Mr. Choudhary was removed from the post of state party chief he was not happy with the party leadership and was in continuous touch with the Mr. Kumar to explore his future political goals.
