Three dissident BJP leaders summoned by party Central leadership

Patna, Apr 21 (UNI) The Central leadership of BJP today summoned three senior leaders--former Bihar president Gopal Narain Singh, former minister Chandramohan Rai and MLA Rameshwar Chaurasia-- to New Delhi in its bid to quell the dissidence erupted after the expansion of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's cabinet.

The party sources said here Gopal Narain Singh is considered to be the opponent of Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and leader of the legislative party of BJP Sushil Kumar Modi, while former Health Minister Chandramohan Rai was not hiding his anger against Mr Modi, since he was dropped from the ministry during expansion of Nitish Kumar cabinet.In his statement a few days back, Mr Rai had held Mr Modi responsible for his exit from the ministry.

The dissident leaders in the BJP are in no mood to accept anything less than removal of Mr Modi from the post of leader of BJP legislative party while Mr Radha Mohan Singh from the state president of the party. No one, however, had emerged as leading the dissident leaders but party MLA from Dhaka Avnish Kumar Singh and MLA from Hajipur Nityanand Rai were among the front runners in raising voices against Mr Modi and Mr Singh.

The rebel leaders of the BJP claimed support of 25 MLAs of the party and said they were ready to place their views in unison before the Central leadership in New Delhi, if needed.

Meanwhile, party MLA from Aurangabad Ramadhar Singh said there was no dissidence in the party.'' There was no limit to the desire of party leaders as they demand ticket during election and after winning the seat, they put their weight behind getting ministerial berths in cabinet'', he said, adding not all demands of the leaders could be accepted.

'' The number of ministers in state cabinet is limited as per law and not all MLAs could be accommodated in the ministry'',Mr Singh pointed out.

UNI KKS/ PL AKJ HT2240