In a statement released on Tuesday, the JDU said, "Janata Dal (United)'s state chief, MP, Mr Bashistha Narain Singh has suspended the 15 leaders from the party's primary membership for six years, for anti-party activities."
The leaders who have been sacked from the party include Pramod Singh Chandravanshi, Arun Kumar, Amresh Chaudhary, Shiv Shankar Chaudhary, Sindhu Paswan, Kartar Singh, Rakesh Ranjan, Mungeri Paswan and Tajammul Khan.
The list also names two former ministers - Rameshwar Paswan and Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha. Apart from these, two former MLAs Ranvijay Singh and Sumit Kumar Singh have also been expelled from the party. Kanchan Kumari Gupta, the former chairperson of Women's Cell was named in the list of expelled members.
The development has come just a week after the Nitish-led JDU released the list of all the 115 candidates for the upcoming crucial Bihar Assembly elections. JDU will contest the assembly polls on as many as 122 seats, 7 of which have been given to Jitan Ram Majhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) under the agreement.
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The first of the three phase polling in Bihar is to be held on October 28. The polling for the second and the third phase will be conducted on November 3 and 7 while the results are expected to be out on November 10. Of the total 243 constituencies, 71 will go to the polls in the first phase.