BJP candidate blames alliance partner Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP for defeat

GAYA: BJP candidate Anuj Singh has blamed alliance partner and Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Tantrik Samta Party (RLSP) for his defeat in the Bihar Legislative Council election. Singh, the sitting MLC lost to JD(U) candidate Manorma Devi by a margin of nearly six hundred votes. The defeat is all the more glaring as BJP did very well elsewhere in the state.Anuj, joined BJP just ahead of the polls.
According to Anuj, RLSP MLC Sanjiv Shyam openly supported independent candidate Kumar Nagindra@ Rinku Yadav in the election and Yadava's campaign was micro managed from Sanjiv Shyam's Chanakyapuri residence in Gaya town. Anuj also said that Sanjiv Shyam even approached Jagdish Sharma, former Jahanabad MP and an influential leader of the region to garner support for Rinku Yadav.
Other RLSP leaders too did not help him. During the campaign itself, he complained to the RLSP state chief Arun Kumar who promised to rein in Sanjiv Shyam and others but little changed on the ground. Arun Kumar was either ineffective or non serious, said the defeated BJP candidate. Rinku Yadav got 800 plus votes all at his cost and these 800 votes polled by Rinku proved to be electoraly fatal for him, said Anuj.
Supporting Anuj's charge against RLSP leaders, senior BJP leader and JP movement activist Akhauri Niranjan alleged that RLSP did not observe coalition Dharma. Akhauri wondered if RLSP, the beneficiary of Modi wave, was internally trying to weaken BJP in order to strengthen its own bargaining power.
However, according to Akhauri Niranjan, RLSP sabotage was not the only reason for Anuj's defeat. Being a para trooper, Anuj was not acceptable to a large number of BJP old timers, he added.
Besides Sanjiv Shyam, Anuj, a former protege of Assembly Speaker Udai Narain Chaudhary accused his mentor of attempted sabotage. But the speaker could not cause him much harm as, he(Anuj) did well in the Imamganj area of the district. Whereas Anuj hails from Imamganj, Udai Narain Chaudhary, a native of Masaurhi (Patna) represents Imamganj in the Bihar assembly.
Denying the sabotage charge, RLSP MLC Sanjiv Shyam Singh said that though he has two decades old business and family relations with Rinku Yadav, he did not campaign for Rinku. On the charge that Rinku's election office ran from his house, Sanjiv Shyam Singh said that since Rinku was a business partner, their joint office is located in his house. It was there before the elections and it will be there after the elections, said Sanjiv Shyam.
Denying the charge that he lobbied in Rinku's favour with Jagdish Sharma, Sanjiv Shyam said that on Rinku's request he only arranged a meet between Rinku Yadav and Jagdish Sharma but he himself did not participate in the meet. RLSP state Vice President Sarfraz Khan also denied the sabotage theory propounded by Anuj Singh.