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Bihar crisis: BJP board fails to reach consensus

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Parliamentary Board of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which met here on Tuesday to discuss the crisis in its State unit failed to arrive at any consensus on how to deal with the situation.

Party president Rajnath Singh said that on Wednesday and the next few days, he would be speaking at length to some senior BJP leaders from Bihar, including Ashwini Chaubey and Sushil Modi, before arriving at a decision. He said the view of the Board was that there should be one more round of consultations.

Mr. Singh said the resolution of the problem — a large number of party legislators are demanding the removal of Mr. Modi as Deputy Chief Minister — should be in such a manner that results in all leaders working in unity for the party.

Decision

He said a decision would be arrived at in the next five to six days.

For some weeks now dissidents have been expressing their unhappiness with the manner of functioning of Mr. Modi, who, they say, has not been able to arrest the growth of the Janata Dal (United) at the cost of the BJP. The immediate provocation was the changing of portfolios of senior BJP leaders, including Mr. Chaubey and Nand Kishore Yadav. Both of them are leading the charge against Mr. Modi.

There is a view among party leaders from Bihar that for far too long the BJP has encouraged Mr. Modi, who belongs to the Other Backward Classes, whereas the party’s base among the upper castes is being wiped out.

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