The RJD on Friday suffered another jolt when its MLA Bharat Bind sat with NDA members in the Bihar assembly, triggering speculation that he would formally join the BJP in the near future. Bind, the RJD MLA from Bhabhua, along with deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary, reached the assembly and sat with the NDA members when the house was conducting its proceedings on the last day of the budget session. He said he crossed over to the ruling alliance as he was impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's style of functioning and his personality.
Bind said he was not displeased with anybody, adding former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav was also doing a good job. On the other hand, Congress MLA Neetu Singh, who represents the Nawada's Hisua constituency, gave another shock to the opposition camp when she declared that she would consider switching the side if the BJP agreed to give her a ticket in the Lok Sabha election. “People want a local person to contest the Lok Sabha election from Nawada. In such a situation, I am ready to join any party, which fields me in the constituency,” she remarked.
Earlier Congress MLAs sat with NDA members
Earlier, Congress MLAs Siddharth Saurabh and Murari Prasad Gautam and RJD MLA Sangeeta Kumari sat with NDA members during the House proceedings on Tuesday. At the time, opposition MLAs under the stewardship of Deputy Chief Minister Choudhary sat on the treasury benches. It all started on February 12 when RJD MLAs Chetan Anand, Neelam Devi and Prahlad Yadav sat along with the NDA MLAs ahead of the voting on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's confidence motion.
Later, the three RJD MLAs cross-voted and supported the motion. As many as seven opposition MLAs, including five RJD MLAs, have crossed over to the ruling alliance so far but 'formally' they have neither joined BJP nor JD(U). State Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh met assembly speaker Nand Kishore Yadav, seeking the disqualification of Siddharth Saurabh and Murari as Congress MLAs. Former chief minister and Leader of the Opposition in Bihar Legislative Council Rabri Devi said RJD leaders would also meet the speaker, seeking disqualification of the party MLAs who had defected to the ruling alliance recently.
