BJP leaders object to Sushil Modi's projection in Bihar

A day after union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said that the Bihar assembly polls in 2015 would be fought under the leadership of Sushil Kumar Modi, senior BJP leaders Sunday objected to his projection as the party's face.

Radha Mohan Singh Saturday said Sushil Modi will be the BJP's face in the next state assembly polls. He is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Motihari.

Sushil Modi is a popular face and acceptable to all in Bihar, Radha Mohan Singh said at the state party headquarters here.

Senior BJP leader Prem Kumar opposed it by saying that the party should go for a collective leadership to fight the next assembly election.

"I strongly feel that the BJP should contest the polls under a collective leadership," Prem Kumar told reporters here.

He said political and social situation in Bihar is now different. There is an urgent need to keep all sections of the society together. "The BJP has to take everyone together to fight the next state assembly polls," Prem Kumar said.

He belongs from the extreme backward caste, which will play a crucial role in the state polls next year.

Former union minister C.P. Thakur said only the BJP central leadership would decide who will be projected as the face of party in the next polls.

"My view is simple, BJP should not discuss and decide the leadership issue on roads or streets. The party central leadership should decide it," said Thakur, a Rajya Sabha member.

He belongs to the powerful Bhumihar upper caste and is considered loyal to the BJP.

A former minister and senior BJP legislator said on condition of anonymity that the party parliamentary board would decide who will lead the party in the next assembly polls.

"The party should not decide any name in hurry," he said.

According to some BJP leaders, a section of powerful leaders, who are Bhumihars, Yadavs and from EBCs (economically backward classes), are opposed to Sushil Modi's projection as the chief ministerial candidate in the next assembly polls.

Sushil Modi belongs to Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and virtually controls the party in Bihar. But he has antagonised many senior party leaders.

Six days after the RJD, JD-U and Congress alliance stunned the BJP by winning six of the 10 assembly seats in by-polls in the state, the in-fighting in the BJP is likely to come out in the open following Radha Mohan Singh's bid to back Sushil Modi in the next polls.