BJP Internal Squabbling Continues

Patna: Oct. 12, 2008

Party infighting within the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar reared its ugly head once again on Sunday when the PHED Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, during a party meet, threatened to resign from the cabinet saying senior leaders were routinely being insulted, abused, and ignored by other party leaders including the leaders from Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (U).

"Coalition government does not mean surrendering to the will of the other parties in the political alliance but the way Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi continues to act, it appears he is more in tune with the JD-U than the BJP. The time has come to speak out against such mistreatment by our own party members and wished the government would accept my resignation and put an end to this ongoing misery," Choubey said.

The disgruntled BJP leaders also spoke in defense of Urban Development Minister Bhola Singh in view of party leader Ram Pravesh Rai's recent tirade against the minister.

Rai earlier called Singh 'a Lalu sycophant' and accused him of taking bribe from a Begusarai advocate in exchange of a government job.

The meeting held at the residence of party MLC Tarakant Jha was presided over by party state in-charge Kalraj Mishra and attended by Modi, former minister Janardan Singh Sigriwal, Health Minister Nand Kishore Yadav, former Union Minister Dr. C. P. Thakur, Chandramohan Rai, Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, Gopal Narayan Singh, and Hridaynath Singh.

Mishra assured the dissidents of transmitting their messages to the party high command in New Delhi who would give a fair hearing to everyone's gripe.

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