Patna,(BiharTimes): A couple of days after several dissident leaders of Janata Dal (United) from Muzaffarpur registered their protest before chief minister Nitish Kumar the party on Sunday decided to cancel the membership of controversial don Rakesh Kumar alias Chunnu Thakur.

Incidentally, he joined the party with much fanfare in Patna a couple of weeks back.
State party chief, Bashishtha Narayan Singh, while confirming the news, said that earlier the party had no information about Chunnu’s criminal antecedents.

He hinted that the party may take similar action against a few more such characters who had joined the party in he last few weeks.

Apart from Chunnu, notorious gangster of Champaran belt, Bablu Dev and Shah Alam Shabbu had joined the JD(U) last month.
However, party insiders are of the view that JD (U) was forced to take the decision under pressure from beneath. It is not that the notorious dons have joined the party for the first time. The party has its own quota of such characters. But since the BJP has strongly objected to the induction of criminals, the dissidents within took up the matter seriously forcing the chief minister to take drastic action.
Political opponents were surprised at the statement of the state JD(U) chief that his party was not aware of Chunnu’s criminal past. After all he was the mastermind behind the kidnapping of Kislay Kaushal, son of a senior government, a few weeks before the February 2005 Assembly election. The former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, during the election campaign, then even raised the issue of this kidnapping.
In fact Chunnu faces charges of murder, attempt to murder and extortion. His induction into the party was hailed by several senior JD(U) leaders.