BJP notice to Bihar leader who said he will expose chief minister Nitish Kumar

The issue involving Tunnaji Pandey threatens to snowball into a major political crisis in the NDA with JD-U leaders threatening to expose BJP leaders.

The Bihar unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Disciplinary Committee has asked party MLC (member of legislative council) Tunna ji Pandey to explain his recent utterances against the Bihar government and chief minister Nitish Kumar.

JD-U leader K C Tyagi hoped that the BJP would not tolerate such acts of indiscipline and reiterated that Nitish Kumar was the undisputed leader of the NDA in Bihar.

“Tunna ji Pandey has been served a show cause notice and asked to reply to the notice in 10 days,” said Vinay Singh, chairperson of the disciplinary committee.

Pandey, whose six-year legislative council term is scheduled to end on July 16, was served the notice after NDA allies Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) raised the matter with the BJP state president. Senior party leaders said Pandey was most likely to be expelled “as the party leadership doesn’t want to affect the alliance unity in this fragile scenario.”

The NDA formed the government in the state with a wafer-thin majority. It has 127 MLAs, five more than the majority mark, while the Mahaghatbandhan or the Grand Alliance (GA) has 110 MLAs in Bihar’s 243-member assembly. Many political observers and some critics maintain that the JD-U’s less than impressive performance in the polls has weakened Kumar’s position inside and outside the alliance.

Party’s national principal general secretary K C Tyagi hoped that the BJP would not tolerate such acts of indiscipline. “We have been working [together] for decades and the BJP doesn’t tolerate such indiscipline. Nitish Kumar has been the leader of the NDA [in Bihar] for more than 15 years and he has been the choice of PM Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda,” said Tyagi.

Spokesperson of HAM-S, Danish Rizwan, too demanded action against the MLC calling his remarks “highly objectionable”.

Undeterred by the notice, the BJP MLC on Thursday said, “Nitish Kumar is a circumstantial chief minister. He is not my leader. Former MP Shahabuddin received punishment for speaking this truth. I have no connection with Mahagathbandhan, I am just a BJP leader.” Pandey had earlier also questioned the state government’s decision not to allow Shahabuddin’s burial at Siwan, after he died of Covid in May this year.

Tunna Pandey’s name has come up in another allegation of corruption against the state administration. Former state minister Vikram Kunwar wrote to CM Nitish Kumar a couple of days ago demanding a probe into the procurement of 10 ambulances in Siwan district, purchased with funds provided by Pandey and former MLAs Ramesh Singh Kushwaha and Vyasdev Prasad.

On Wednesday, Pandey alleged that “chief minister was hand in glove with liquor smugglers since 2009. I will ensure he lands in jail and will expose him,”. The BJP MLC also said he was not afraid of speaking the truth. “I can speak against anybody, whoever he may be.”