RS poll jolt exposes fault lines in Grand Alliance

Patna: A blame game was on within the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, days after four MLAs of the opposition coalition failed to turn up for voting in biennial Rajya Sabha elections, resulting in a walkover for the ruling NDA.

Although the 35 MLA-strong multi-party coalition got the support of five legislators of the AIMIM and one of the BSP, its candidate Amarendra Dhari Singh failed to get re-elected for a second consecutive term, and the defeat is being blamed on the absence of three MLAs of the Congress and one of the RJD.

An embarrassed Congress, which has only six MLAs in the state assembly, has shot off notices to its absentee MLAs -- Manoj Biswas, Surendra Kushwaha and Manohar Prasad -- seeking an explanation on why they did not vote in favour of Singh on March 16. The notice was issued on Wednesday by Kapil Deo Prasad Yadav, the head of the state Congress disciplinary committee.

Biswas, who spoke to reporters after the receipt of the notice, stuck to his guns and said, “I have drafted my reply. I had indulged in no indiscipline. I did not cross-vote. The candidate fielded by the RJD was not to my liking. No diktat was issued by the state leadership to vote in favour of Amarendra Dhari Singh, so I acted as per my conscience. My party was not being treated with respect by the RJD.”

Biswas also claimed that he would have voted in favour of the RJD candidate had the party fielded a Muslim, a community which has a formidable presence in his assembly constituency of Forbesganj.

“Till the eleventh hour, it was being said that the RJD was going to field Hina Shahab. I wonder what changed,” said Biswas, referring to the widow of gangster-turned-politician Mohd Shahabuddin, a multiple-term former MLA from Siwan, whose son Osama is the MLA from Raghunathpur.

Kushwaha said he had reservations about “voting for a Bhumihar candidate”.