BJP ministers, MPs, legislators abstain from state executive meet

Patna,(BiharTimes): Division in the state BJP appears to have widened as a large number of its leaders did not turn up at two-day Bihar executive meeting of the party - the first after Mangal Pandey became the state party chief.which started on Saturday morning.

Prominent among those who stayed away from the meet were former the Bharatiya Janata Party's former state unit chief C.P. Thakur, Health Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey, PHED minister Chandra Mohan Rai and Animal Husbandry Minister Giriraj Singh, former state party chief, Tarakant Jha and a number of MLAs.

They all belong to, what is called, the Narendra Modi camp in Bihar. They are opposed to the new state party chief, Mangal Pandey, who is considered close to deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi. Former state party president, Dr C P Thakur, is also backing the rival camp.

"They are unhappy over Pandey's style of functioning without consulting senior party leaders. Besides, they had also questioned his setting up of a jumbo 174-member working committee in a unilateral manner,"said another party leader close to Thakur.

Thakur, a Rajya Sabha MP, said that he was not angry with Pandey but with Modi, "who is running the show by using him", said the leader.

The two-day executive meeting was inaugurated by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley. Party national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain, who also attended the meet, downpalyed the rift.

"There is nothing like it. No one is unhappy and angry in the BJP here," he told media persons here.

Incidentally, when Arun Jaitley and some senior leaders arrived at the meeting a section of party workers shouted slogan Narendra Modi Zindabad.

Earlier, on Friday a meeting of this group took place in the house of Tarakant Jha.  "In that meeting itself, it was decided by them to boycott the executive meeting of the party to express their anger," said a party leader.