Bihar polls: BJP rebels another major challenge for NDA

New Delhi: The rebels of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have become another challenge for the party that claims to be the 'party with a difference' as over three dozen senior leaders of the saffron party are in a direct fight with either BJP nominees or its key allies –Janata Dal-United (JDU), Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM).

It's for the first time in many years that the rebels of BJP have refused to listen to their high command and filed their nominations against the candidates of alliance partners, after they were denied tickets as the seats of their choice, went to ally partner JDU in the seat-sharing agreement.

Surprisingly, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), a constituent of NDA in the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has become the 'parking lot' for all BJP rebels. Most of the rebels of the saffron party are contesting against JDU candidates on the LJP symbol.

The key BJP rebels who are now giving sleepless nights to its parent party by contesting against JDU nominees include Rajendra Singh, who was unannounced CM face of Bihar BJP in 2015 assembly poll, is contesting on LJP ticket from Dinara assembly seat, Rameshwar Chaurasia from Sasaram seat, Usha Vidhyarthi from Paliganj seat, Sweta Singh from Sandesh seat, Ravindra Yadav from Jhajha seat, Indu Kashyap from Jehanabad seat, Mrinal Shekhar from Amarpur seat, etc.

Similarly, Suresh Yadav is contesting from Madhepura seat against JDU nominee on LJP ticket, BJP's rebel Sushma Sahu, whose nomination was rejected, has come out in support of Congress candidate Luv Sinha from Bankipur seat, former MLA and BJP's rebel Shrikant Nirala is contesting against BJP's Nikhil Anand from Yadav-dominated Maner assembly constituency.

Besides, Tarkeshwar Singh is contesting against VIP candidate at Baniyapur seat, Arjun Ram is in the fray from Rajauli (SC) seat, Ranjeet Yadav is contesting from Govindpur seat against NDA nominees on LJP ticket.

According to BJP leaders, the party has sacked all the rebels for their anti-party activities.

However, the political experts have something different to say on BJP rebels giving a toss to BJP's top leadership diktat.

"Leaders like Rajendra Singh, Rameshwar Chaurasia, Usha Vidhyarthi, Ravindra Yadav, Rakesh Kumar Singh, etc are hardcore BJP supporters and most of them are from RSS background. So, it's not a rebellion, rather it's a part of a 'well-planned' strategy to gain from the anti-Nitish wave," political experts said.