Patna, Mar 17 (PTI) Bihar Congress president Rajesh Kumar Ram on Tuesday alleged that the party’s MLAs, who failed to turn up at Rajya Sabha polls a day ago, had “acted under pressure from the NDA”, which went on to win all five seats in the state.
However, at least two of the three absentee MLAs refuted the charge and claimed that Ram had advised them to “act as per conscience” and, hence, they refrained from voting for the RJD candidate who was not to their liking.
Ram, who staged a demonstration in front of the historical Sadaqat Ashram, the BPCC headquarters, told reporters, “We are protesting against the NDA which indulges in vote chori in direct elections and took recourse to vidhayak chori in Rajya Sabha polls. Our three MLAs must have been under pressure from the NDA. I am told they had been held captive at the instance of the ruling coalition”.
The Congress has altogether six MLAs in the 243-strong assembly out of whom Manoj Biswas, Surendra Kushwaha and Manohar Prasad remained absent during the biennial Rajya Sabha polls.
Besides, RJD MLA Faisal Rehman, who is away in Delhi because of medical reasons, also failed to turn up in support of Amarendra Dhari Singh, his own party’s candidate.
Oddly, Biswas, who represents Forbesganj and Kushwaha, the MLA from Valmiki Nagar, appeared before the media and said they were never commanded by the state Congress leadership to vote for Singh.
“Rajesh Ram may say anything now, but before elections he simply told me that I should act as per conscience. Because of ideological reasons, I could have never voted for the NDA. So, I remained absent”, said Biswas.
He added, “I would have considered voting for the RJD candidate had the party fielded Hina Shahab, whose name initially did the rounds. I come from a constituency where one cannot vote without taking Muslims along. Why they fielded Singh is anybody’s guess”.
Notably, while Singh, who failed to win a second consecutive term in Rajya Sabha, is a businessman from the Bhumihar caste, known to be hostile towards the RJD, Shahab is the widow of several term former MP Mohd Shahabuddin and mother of Osama, the party’s MLA from Raghunathpur.
Kushwaha said, “My loyalties are not up for sale and I am not somebody who can be intimidated. So, all this talk of NDA’s money and muscle power influencing my move is nonsense. No less a person than AICC in charge of Bihar Krishna Allavaru had told me to act as per conscience. And I did so”.
Kushwaha admitted to have received “a WhatsApp message from Rajesh Ram, just ahead of Rajya Sabha polls, with the request that I vote for the RJD candidate”.
“That he did not bother to call me up is proof that he was not very serious about the suggestion. Moreover, I would have not thought twice before voting for the RJD had they taken a proper decision. At one point of time we heard that RJD national working president Tejashwi Yadav was himself interested in a Rajya Sabha berth”.
When Ram was told about the party MLAs’ averment, he said “I have not spoken to them since the Rajya Sabha polls. I intend to question them on why they acted in a manner that only benefitted the BJP and its allies like Nitish Kumar”.
Kumar, the longest serving Chief Minister of the state, who heads the JD(U), was among the winning NDA candidates. PTI NAC RG
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