Patna: Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Nitish Kumar on Friday announced veteran socialist leader George Fernandes, who filed his nomination papers from Muzaffarpur constituency in Bihar as an Independent candidate, has been expelled from the party.
He said that Fernandes' decision to defy the party by contesting elections as an Independent automatically led to his expulsion from the party. "The JD-U has no relation with Fernandes or any one who is contesting elections against the party's decision," Nitish Kumar said.
"After Fernandes decided to contest election as an Independent, he is no more in the JD-U... the party has nothing to do with him," Nitish Kumar said at a press meet, called to announce the entry of two sitting Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MPs into the JD-U.
The official JD-U candidate from Muzaffarpur, Jai Prakash Nishad is facing revolt from within the party while workers of the JD-U's alliance partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have announced they would not support him.
Now Fernandes' statements and his activities should not be linked with the JD-U because the party has no connection or relation with him, the chief minister reiterated.
Sources in the party office here told IANS that Fernandes' photographs in the JD-U office had also been removed after Nitish Kumar's outburst.
Fernandes, who had been denied a party ticket for the 2009 poll on grounds of his "advancing years and failing health", had Wednesday filed his nomination papers from Muzaffarpur as an Independent.
Without naming anybody in the JD-U, he said some people were spreading rumours that he was not well and cannot contest elections. "It is a big lie, I am healthy," he said.
He was accompanied by JD-U Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh, former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra, former MP Ram Jeevan Singh and dozens of socialist leaders, besides hundreds of his supporters.
Digvijay Singh was unhappy with JD-U leadership after being denied a party ticket to contest from Banka seat while Mishra quit the party to protest that no one from the Brahmin community was given a ticket to contest the poll.
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