In a setback to the RJD ahead of the first phase of polling in Bihar, a number of disgruntled leaders quit the party on Tuesday, a move that could hurt the Grand Alliance in some places.

On Tuesday, RJD’s national vice-president Mangani Lal Mandal, who was a ticket hopeful from Jhanjharpur, and party’s state vice-president Ram Badan Rai, another hopeful from Munger, announced their resignations from the primary membership of the party along with several other leaders, including former Jhanjharpur MLA Jagat Narayan Singh.

They are set to join the JD-U, sources said.

Mandal had won the Jhanjharpur parliamentary seat in 2009 on a JD-U ticket, defeating RJD’s Devendra Prasad Yadav. He was also chief whip of the party in the Lok Sabha. On Tuesday, he praised BJP and JD-U for giving more presentation to EBCs and OBCs “without trumpeting about it”.

“It is hurting to see blatant disregard of extremely backward classes in ticket distribution in the RJD, a party that talks of social justice, and allegations of money play,” said Mandal, a three-time member of the Bihar Legislative Council and elected member of the Rajya Sabha in 2004.

In Jhanjharpur, RJD has fielded its MLA Gulab Yadav for the parliamentary seat, which has upset Mandal. “I was the runner-up in 2014, having polled over 2.80 lakh votes. Now, a tainted leader had been given preference over me. What is more distressing is that the RJD could field just one EBC candidate in the 20 seats it is fighting, while JD-U has fielded six in 17 seats and BJP 2 out of 17,” Mandal said.

In Jhanjharpur, five-time MP Devendra Prasad Yadav was also hopeful of GA ticket and he jumped into the fray as an Independent after being denied ticket. With Mandal also leaving RJD and siding with the NDA, it could make it easier for the JD-U candidate R P Mandal, an EBC. Jhanjharpur has a sizeable EBC population.

Former MLC Rai, a ticket hopeful from Munger seat which he unsuccessfully contested in 2009, said it was hurting to see there was no regard for party workers in the party, leaving him and many others with no choice but to return to the JD-U fold. “EBC has 40% population and RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav had announced giving equivalent representation to EBCs in ticket distribution, but all that has been forgotten,” he said.

Incidentally, Rai had joined the RJD only in February 2018, terming Tejashwi as the ‘hope of Bihar and future CM’, while criticizing Nitish Kumar after he rejoined the NDA. He was the runner-up in the 2009 LS polls, but performed poorly in 2014 on a Samajwadi Party ticket.

First Published: Apr 11, 2019 09:20 IST