Former Janata Dal (United) leader Sabir Ali being welcomed into the BJP.
Sabir Ali, the Rajya Sabha member who was expelled from Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) on Monday for praising Narendra Modi, today joined the BJP.
Mr Ali, one of the most prominent and visible Muslim faces of the JD(U), was the party's candidate from the Sheohar Lok Sabha seat. He was among the three sitting Rajya Sabha members who had been denied a renomination for the biennial polls by Mr Kumar in January. They were asked to contest the Lok Sabha polls instead.
While Shivanand Tiwari and NK Singh declined the chief minister's offer, Mr Ali, 58, agreed to enter the race for next month's Lok Sabha polls. He was declared as the JD(U) nominee from Sheohar in north Bihar.
Mr Singh had joined the BJP last week. Mr Ali followed in on his colleague's footsteps today. "I felt the best option to fight against corruption, price rise...is through the BJP. All parties in Bihar who claim to be secular are doing nothing , but playing politics,'' he told reporters after being inducted into the BJP.
"When JD(U) didn't walk the talk on its promises...I made up my mind. I went to Gujarat, met people, spent three days there and realised that people were spreading falsehoods about Mr Modi. Convinced with what I saw, I decided to join the BJP,'' Mr Ali explained.
The businessman-turned-politician is the BJP's latest import from the JD(U). Besides Mr Singh, Sushil Kumar Singh, who represents Aurangabad in the Lok Sabha and Vijay Singh Kushwaha, a close friend of the Bihar chief minister, had earlier quit the JD(U). They have now been accommodated by the BJP as its candidates from Aurangabad and Madhepura.