Hours after the completion of the second phase of polling on November 3, the ruling Janata Dal (United) expelled 33 of its leaders and workers from the primary membership of the party.
According to the Bihar unit president of the party, Vashisht Narayan Singh these leaders had indulged in anti-party activities.
Those thrown out of the party include Arun Kumar Singh, Anita Singh and Dipak Kumar Patel. On October 13 last the party had sacked 15 of its leaders and functionaries.
The alliance partner the Bharatiya Janata Party too had kicked out 45 of its leaders in the last few weeks. These include 22 of them who are contesting on tickets of different parties, especially the Lok Janshakti Party. They consist of Rajendra Singh, a senior RSS functionary and former MLAs Rameshwar Chaurasia and Usha Vidyarthi.
The large scale expulsions from these two ruling parties in Bihar are pointer to the fact that all is not well within the National Democratic Alliance in the state, where the third phase of polling for 78 seats is going to take place on November 7.
As a sizeable number of candidates have thrown their hats in the ring as rebels the ruling combination was left with no other option.
However, the drastic action by both the parties has certainly affected the morale of the rank and file of the NDA, especially the BJP, which used to be considered as a well-disciplined cadre-based party.
