The chairman of the NDA constituent VIP, Mukesh Sahni, has suffered a major setback in Bihar, as all three of the alliance partner’s MLAs — Mishri Lal Yadav, Raju Singh and Swarna Singh — have left the party. The three MLAs have extended support to the BJP.
The three MLAs met Speaker Vijay Sinha today and apprised him of their decision. The deputy chief minister of Bihar, as well as state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal, were present on the occasion.
At the time of reporting, all the three MLAs were still present in the speaker’s chamber. The VIP party may merge into the BJP in the assembly, sources said.
Even before the Uttar Pradesh assembly election, there was a rift between Mukesh Sahni and the BJP, with speculations going rife that he did not enjoy the loyalty of his three MLAs. They mostly resist his decisions in the deliberations of the VIP’s organisational affairs, but no one spilt the beans before the media.
VIP’s national spokesperson Dev Jyoti said that the party must be prioritised over its individual members. “Our MLAs are gone. Everyone knows at whose behest they left.”
Jyoti said, “We are fighting a battle for a Nishad reservation. The party was formed in 2020 for the betterment of the Nishad community. Today we have three MLAs; we will have 40 MLAs in the next election.” The VIP spokesperson did not tell the reasons for the three MLAs’ desertion.
A day earlier, Sahni had said during a Facebook Live session, “Today, our colleagues are being diplomatic. The allies are trying to break us because they know that as our strength increases, we will have to compromise on more seats.”
Sahni said that the latest circumstances showed “I have been expelled from the NDA. As a minister in the government, I cannot tell everything right now. Read between my lines”.
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