Rebel RJD leader Samrat Chaudhary denies fraud with MLA signatures

PATNA: Senior RJD leader Samrat Chaudhary, who handed over a letter with the signatures of 13 MLAs quitting RJD to the Bihar Assembly Speaker, today rubbished allegations of fraud and claimed those who returned to the party did so under pressure.

"I had submitted the letter bearing the signature of 13 MLAs to Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary on February 14," Samrat Chaudhary, who is Chief Whip of the RJD in the Assembly, told PTI here.

"All the signatures are genuine," Chaudhary, RJD MLA from Parbatta in Khagaria district, said.

"I and other leaders once again appeal to colleagues to discharge their constitutional duty as legislators and quit the RJD," he said.

Chaudhary, at whose residence the dissident MLAs met yesterday to make their decision public, claimed that many of them returned under "pressure".

He and three other MLAs Raghvendra Pratap Singh, Javed Iqbal Ansari and Akhtarul Islam who were among the 13 signatories did not attend the legislature party meeting at which party chief Lalu Prasad was present during the day.

His father Shakuni Chaudhary, who is a senior leader of RJD and seen by at side Lalu Prasad at party functions, was also absent from the meeting.

As per reports, the junior Chaudhary was keen to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Khagaria which was a Congress seat under a seat-sharing alliance.

Raghvendra Pratap Singh and Akhtarul Islam also wanted to contest the Parliamentary polls from Ara and Kisanganj respectively which as per reports were going to the Congress.