Patna: RJD has dissolved all its organisational units in Bihar, including district, block and panchayat committees, as well as various cell units, an official statement said.
The statement was issued by RJD’s state president, Mangani Lal Mandal, late on Thursday evening.
The decision assumes significance in view of the party’s defeat in the recently concluded Bankipur bypoll. RJD’s candidate, Rekha Gupta, forfeited her deposit in the by-election.
“All organisational units of the RJD (Bihar) at every level — including organisational units at the district, block and panchayat levels, as well as organisational units associated with all cells and other affiliated organisational bodies — stand dissolved with immediate effect,” the statement said.
The process of reconstituting the organisational committees at all levels across the state shall commence at the earliest, it said.
Recently, two RJD leaders — Bhai Virendra and Shakti Singh Yadav — engaged in a war of words, blaming each other for weakening the party organisation after the Bankipur debacle.
Commenting on the dissolution of all RJD organisational units, MLA Bhai Virendra told reporters Friday that the decision had been taken to make the party organisation stronger than before.
He said that, henceforth, only dedicated and capable workers would be entrusted with responsibilities in the party. He also claimed that an RJD government would be formed in Bihar in the coming days.
Echoing a similar view, former minister and RJD MLA Kumar Sarvjeet told PTI, “The decision to reconstitute the organisational committees at all levels across the state will certainly strengthen the party. Cadre working at the grassroots level for so many years must be elevated and given important posts in the organisation. I have already expressed my views to senior party leaders in this regard.”
Reacting to the move, Bihar BJP leader Mrityunjay Tiwary told PTI, “I have been saying from the very beginning that all is not well in the RJD, and that was the reason I quit the party. I felt suffocated in the party. The RJD’s national working president, Tejashwi Yadav, is surrounded by people who are hollowing out the party like termites.”
Former RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari recently joined the BJP.
Tiwari had said that RJD supremo Lalu Prasad had appointed him as a party spokesperson in 2014, and “I did my best defending Rashtriya Janata Dal in the media while it was going through a lean phase”.