JD(U) leader claims 42 BJP & 17 RJD MLAs to join Nitish Kumar

PATNA: Trouble for the BJP in Bihar appeared mounting on Monday after a BJP legislator in Bihar lavished praise on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and another raised the spectre of a split in the state unit.

A day after the BJP suspended one of its legislators - Amarnath Gami -- for rebelling against its senior Bihar leader Sushil Kumar Modi, legislator Rana Gangeshwar Singh piled on the embarrassment for the party by openly backing the Bihar chief minister for the prime minister's post.

"We want to see Nitishji as the prime minister . He scripted the turnaround story in Bihar and the country will immensely benefit if he is anointed as the PM," said Singh, the BJP MLA from Mohiuddinagar.

Another BJP MLA, Vijya Kumar Mishra of Jaale, also raised the banner of revolt, openly supported Gami and telling ET that half of the party legislators were upset with the party's leadership in the state.

"If you personally speak to the BJP MLAs, you will find 50% of the legislators are unhappy with the state party leadership. I can't say what their future course will be," Mishra said, adding there was no internal democracy within the BJP.

The BJP and Kumar's JD(U) ended a 17-year-old alliance last month amid acrimony after Gujarat CM Narendra Modi was selected as the chief of the BJP's campaign committee for elections, a move that virtually anointed him as the party's PM candidate.

The BJP, which has 91 legislators in Bihar, hit back at the chief minister and accused him of wooing legislators from all other parties to save his chair.

Kumar's one time deputy and former FM, the BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi, said it was the JD(U) rather than the BJP that was more vulnerable. "One or two of our legislators may walk out of the party . About two dozen JD(U) MLAs are in touch with us and they will defect at the appropriate time," he said. Governance in Bihar had taken a back seat, he added.

Bihar BJP chief Mangal Pandey told reporters that Nitish Kumar had promised legislators that he would accommodate their relatives in the legislative council.