LAGATAR24 NETWORK
Ranchi, July 24: Mandu MLA Jai Prakash Bhai Patel is likely to be the BJP legislature party leader in the Jharkhand Assembly.
Patel, son of late Teklal Mahto, one of the founder members of the JMM, had joined the BJP ahead of the 2019 assembly elections and won the Mandu seat. Patel belongs to Kurmi caste which has a sizeable chunk of votes after tribals in Jharkhand.
He met the senior BJP leaders in New Delhi yesterday. The BJP, according to sources, has decided to pick an OBC leader as the legislature party chief after Babulal Marandi, a Santhali, was appointed the party chief in Jharkhand. Senior BJP MLA C P Singh and Biranchi Narayan were the other contenders for the post.
Notably, the issue of leader of Opposition has been hanging fire since 2019 as the Speaker did not recognise Babulal Marandi nominated for the post by the BJP on the grounds that he was facing defection charges.
The ‘leader of Opposition’ issue, which has held up appointments to various constitutional and statutory bodies for the last three years, is also pending in the Jharkhand High Court.
Patel had left the JMM, saying that the poor leadership of Shibu Soren has reduced the party to a group of few people. “Party’s senior leaders have been set aside in all major decisions. Hemant Soren and some people belonging to his kitchen cabinet are taking each and every decision within the party,” he had said.
