Just 12 days after his suspension from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on June 4, the party’s MLC, Tunnajee Pandey, on Wednesday attended a high-level virtual meeting of Bihar BJP presided over by the state unit chief, Sanjay Jaiswal.
Not only that, he later posted his photograph on Facebook and added that he had even interacted with Sanjay Jaiswal during the meeting which was attended by BJP’s Union ministers from Bihar, the party’s ministers in the Nitish cabinet, MPs, legislators and other office-bearers.
Tunnajee’s presence in the BJP meeting only gives an idea of the importance the Bihar unit of the saffron party is giving to chief minister Nitish Kumar’s protest.
Tunnajee was suspended from the BJP after the Janata Dal-United raised objection when he not only went to meet the son of late RJD strongman, Mohammad Shahabuddin but also praised him. He did not stop there but on May 31 quoted Shahabuddin as saying that Nitish Kumar is the product of circumstances. Tunnajee also alleged that actually Nitish had lost last year’s Assembly election to young Tejashwi Prasad Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and that he is holding on to power by sheer manipulation and indulging in irregularities. Tunnajee then tweeted justifying his remarks on Nitish.
On his meeting with Osama (Shahabuddin’s son) he said that he couldn’t call on him earlier because of his illness. Shahabuddin, who was serving prison term in Tihar Jail in Delhi, died of corona virus last month.
Interestingly, Tunnajee, a liquor baron, had in the past openly accused Nitish Kumar of being involved in the multi-crore liquor scam of 2009-10. The BJP MLC had also said that he would not sit idle till he sees Nitish Kumar jailed in this scam.
