Former JD(U) MP Arjun Ray joins BJP ahead of Bankipur bypoll

Arjun Ray, Former JD(U) MP, joined the BJP on Monday after quitting his former party a decade ago in protest after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s return to the NDA.

The former MP joined the saffron party along with his supporters in the presence of state BJP president Sanjay Saraogi.

Being one of late former JD(U) president Sharad Yadav’s loyalists, also served as the NDA convener till 2013, when Kumar decided to pull out from the alliance with BJP.


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Ray was amongst the few JD(U) leaders who sided with Yadav in opposing the move and forming the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) four years later when Kumar snapped ties with the RJD-Congress combine and realigned with the BJP

The LJD merged with the JD(U) in 2022.

Saraogi, welcoming Ray into the party, said the BJP would be strengthened with his induction.

He represented the Sitamarhi Lok Sabha constituency and the Aurai assembly seat as a JD(U) leader.

Ray joining the BJP is seen as an attempt to counter Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor's Yadav outreach in the run-up to Bankipur assembly bypoll scheduled on July 30.

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Even though Yadavs constitute the largest caste group in the state and have been large RJD supporters, the party’s candidate Rekha Gupta is favoured less compared to Kishor, a former poll strategist who hopes to wrest the seat that the BJP has never lost since 1995.

Kishor has raised the issue of the kidnapping and murder of local resident Bunty Yadav—who was renowned in the fight against flesh trade in the vicinity of Patna Railway Junction—as an attempt to garner support from the Yadavs.