A day before he was scheduled to address the national executive meeting of the Janata Dal (United) here, the BJP served a fresh jolt to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and helped six JD (U) legislators in Arunachal Pradesh defect to the saffron party.
Most of these party legislators were earlier scheduled to attend the JD (U) meet in Patna on December 26-27, but the defections effected by its ally BJP has left Nitish speechless.
Nitish, who is also the JD (U) national president, merely said he would react on the issue at the Saturday party meeting, although his aides termed the BJP action as “an unfriendly act which is against the coalition dharma.”
Notably, the JD (U) had contested 15 seats for the 60-member Assembly in Arunachal Pradesh. It, however, won seven seats and became the main Opposition party after the BJP emerged victorious in 41 seats. However, on Friday, six out of seven JD (U) MLAs defected to the BJP. The six legislators are Dorjee Kharma, Jikke Tako, Hayeng Mangfi, Dongru Siongju, Talem Taboh and Kanggong Taku.
The BJP in Arunachal now has a strength of 48 MLAs, including a legislator from the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA).
“The BJP government would have carried on even with its own (adequate) support. There was no need to indulge in such act of defections which is ‘gair-dostana’ (unfriendly) and against the coalition dharma,” said JD (U) principal general secretary KC Tyagi. He, however, added that the development won’t affect the ties between the JD (U) and the BJP, the two ruling partners in Bihar.
Published 25 December 2020, 15:39 IST