BJP trying hard to mollify Lal Muni Chaubey

PATNA: The BJP today said it was trying to mollify senior leader Lal Muni Chaubey who was defiant to contest as an independent candidate from the Buxar Lok Sabha seat after the party denied him ticket.

"We are making serious efforts to convince him against contesting from Buxar parliamentary seat as an independent candidate," former deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters.

"We are all hopeful that Chaubey will see the reason and abide by the party's decision," he said.

Chaubey, a four-term BJP MP from Buxar, had raised a banner of revolt against the party after he was denied ticket and replaced by another Brahmin face -- Ashwani Kumar Chaubey, a former health minister in the erstwhile NDA-II government.

Ignoring all efforts to placate him, the veteran leader had lashed out at party president Rajnath Singh and the prime ministerial hopeful Narendra Modi yesterday and said that denial of Lok Sabha ticket to him will resonate in the entire Poorvanchal region.

Describing the BJP as the party of 'slaves', Chaubey had vowed to contest as independent from Buxar where he lost by a narrow margin to RJD candidate Jagadanand Singh in the last 2009 general elections.