Patna, (Bihar Times): In an attempt to paper over the crisis within the Bihar BJP the central leadership of the party took a belated move to accommodate most of the known dissident leaders. Besides it set up a core group of five senior leaders, which will work as a bridge between the two alliance partners, the Janata Dal (United) and the BJP. The move came after three days of meeting which ended on late on Friday.
This special team comprises state party chief, Radha Mohan Singh, deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, health minister Nand Kishore Yadav, PHED minister, Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Hridaynath Singh and has been constituted keeping in mind the coming Lok Sabha election.
And those who have been accommodated in the party organizational set up are Chandra Mohan Rai Rameshwar Prasad, Janardan Singh Sigriwal, Prem Ranjan Patel and Nityanand Rai. Former minister Sigriwal has been made the general secretary of the party while Chandra Mohan Rai, also dropped by Nitish from his cabinet on April 13 last, has been included in the national executive of the party. He is likely to get Lok Sabha ticket.
Nityanand Rai and Rameshwar Prasad Chaurasia, two dissident MLAs have been made new vice presidents of the party while Prem Ranjan Patel will be the new secretary.
Though this team has been constituted keeping in mind the coming parliamentary election political observers are of the view that the move may not cut much ice as many of the dissidents are not yet in talking term with Sushil Kumar Modi and company. They even did not attend the state party executive meeting a few days back. The BJP in Bihar went into crisis just after the April 13 cabinet reshuffle in which Sigriwal and Rai were dropped. Dissident leaders alleged that Modi was hand in glove of the chief minister Nitish Kumar in this act.
Like in 2004 the BJP is bent upon to contest 16 out of the 40 seats in the coming Lok Sabha election. However, there is pressure from the Janata Dal (United) that it may contest more seats.
