Former Bihar BJP chief Tarakant Jha quits party, joins JD(U)

Patna,(BiharTimes): The oldest member of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar, Tarakant Jha, resigned from the primary membership of the party and joined the Janata Dal (United).

He was the chairman of the Bihar Legislative Council till 2012 and served as the state BJP chief between 1990 and 1992.

Talking to the media he accused the former deputy chief minister and senior party leader, Sushil Kumar Modi, and others for not giving respect though “I am the oldest member of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar”.

“Samman nahin mila” (I did not get respect), he told the media.

He was associated with the Sangh parivar ever since the formation of Bharatiya Jan Sangh (the earlier version of the BJP) in early 1950s.

Jha, a senior advocate of the Patna high court, played a key role in bringing the BJP to this stage. He was the state party chief in the early 1990s during the high time of Ram Janambhoomi movement. Yet the denial of Council re-nomination in 2012, when he was still its Chairman, disappointed him. Party sources then said that his proximity to chief minister Nitish Kumar prompted the party to drop him.

However, Jha then accused the party leaders of ignoring him even when his wife was seriously ill. It was the chief minister who paid a visit to his office then.

Incidentally, both the BJP and Janata Dal (United) were in the National Democratic Alliance then.

Earlier on Wednesday he called on Nitish Kumar at his residence and then later joined the Janata Dal (United) at the party office.

Interestingly, in 2012 the party made Mangal Pandey the member of Council and a few months later in 2013 he was made the state party chief.

Meanwhile, former JD(U) MLC, Chandrama Singh, joined the BJP on Wednesday afternoon.