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Rediff.com  » News » Sushil Modi to continue as Bihar Dy CM

Sushil Modi to continue as Bihar Dy CM

Source: PTI
June 08, 2008 22:07 IST
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Sushil Modi will continue as Bihar's deputy chief minister and also as leader of Bharatiya Janata Party's dissidence-wracked legislature party after an unprecedented 'secret ballot' showed he enjoyed majority support of the party's Members of Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council in the state.

"It has been decided that there shall be no change in the leadership and Sushil Kumar Modi, Deputy Chief Minister will continue as leader of the legislature party," party spokesperson Ravi Shanker Prasad told PTI shortly after Modi won the 'head count' of legislators.

BJP leadership had decided to go for a 'secret ballot' to assess the view of legislators as a way out to address the demand by some of them that Modi should be removed from the two posts.

The trouble in BJP's Bihar unit erupted after last month's cabinet reshuffle in which some of the BJP ministers were dropped. The BJP and JD-U share power in Bihar.

Senior party leaders Venkaiah Naidu and Sushma Swaraj, the observers for the meeting, consulted BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani and party president Rajnath Singh before announcing the decision of Modi continuing in his two posts.

Party sources said that Modi got the support of 35 legislators out of the total of 67 who gave their preferences. Two legislators were absent during the 'secret ballot', which is seen as a legitimate tool to settle a dispute.

After his victory, Modi said the outcome was a 'verdict' against forces inimical to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance grouping.  

Earlier, coming out of a meeting at the party headquarters in New Delhi, Modi said the opinion of the legislators would be final and the party has employed democratic means to arrive at a decision.
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