BJP to support independent candidates in Bihar Rajya Sabha by-poll tomorrow

PATNA: In a boost to the JD(U) dissident group, the BJP tonight decided that its MLAs would vote in favour of the independent candidates in tomorrow's by-poll in Bihar to fill up two Rajya Sabha seats, a senior party leader said.

"We have decided to vote in favour of the two independent candidates - Anil Sharma and Sabir Ali - in the Rajya Sabha by-poll," former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi told PTI.

The decision to vote for the independent candidates was taken at the BJP legislature party meeting held this evening, he said. BJP has 84 members in the Legislative Assembly.

The former deputy chief minister came down heavily on the JD(U) and RJD for entering into an 'unholy alliance' to ensure victory of the two official candidates - Pawan Kumar Verma and Gulam Rasool Baliyawi - in the Rajya Sabha by-poll and said that the people of Bihar had not given the two parties mandate to rule together.

"It's a betrayal of mandate in the 2010 Assembly polls in which the people had voted for the JD(U) and BJP to together rule Bihar and the RJD to sit in opposition," Modi said.

The people of Bihar will definitely be happy with the turn of political events of late in Bihar wherein JD(U)and RJD have come together to rule Bihar in utter disrespect to their mandate, the senior BJP leader said.

The electorate will teach these two parties a lesson in the next Assembly polls for entering into an 'unholy' and 'opportunistic' alliance to seek victory of the ruling party's official candidates in the Rajya Sabha by-poll, but to also ensure survival of the fragile Jitan Ram Manjhi government.

The BJP's decision to vote for the two independent candidates has thrown wide open the outcome of the Rajya Sabha by-poll tomorrow with the numbers of the rival camps appearing to be closely matched.