Union minister and Buxar MP, Choubey has so far maintained silence on his candidature being denied but that might change in the coming days.
It has been two weeks since BJP in its 5th list that was released on the night of 24 March, denied tickets to union minister and Member of Parliament from Bihar’s Buxar, Ashwini Kumar Choubey.
Choubey, was among the three MPs from Bihar who were denied ticket- the other two being Ajay Nishad, the party MP from Muzaffarpur and Chhedi Paswan from Sasaram. While Nishad joined Congress earlier this week, Paswan is also said to be in talks with the Congress.
However, Choubey, who has been a two-time MP from Buxar and known for his outspokenness, has so far maintained silence on his candidature being denied but that might change in the coming days.
Ever since he was denied the ticket, he has not gone to his constituency which is being seen as a sign of his protest and anger and what should also come as a warning for Mithilesh Tiwari, who has been given the ticket in place of Choubey.
On Saturday, the 71-year-old Choubey was praying at the Ram temple at Orchha, Madhya Pradesh with his supporters stating that he has “left the action that he will take in the future to Lord Rama”.
As per Ramayana, Lord Rama and his brothers received their education at the ashram of Sage Vishwamitra that is situated in Buxar.
On 8 April, which will mark the 50 years of Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan formally joining and leading Bihar movement and the call for “Total Revolution”, Choubey will be joining the silent protest march that will happen in Patna to commemorate the event which changed the lives of the people, the state and the country.
During the 1974 revolution Choubey was leading the student’s action committee.
His Buxar based supporters while speaking to The Sunday Guardian said that the ticket was denied to Choubey as a part of the ‘conspiracy’ by state and central leaders.
The supporters were extremely critical of the stand taken by party president Jagat Prakash Nadda, who started his political career with Choubey and is regarded by the latter as one of his closest friends in the party. Choubey, from his school going days, has been associated with RSS and is counted as amongst the few genuine Bihar based leaders that have emerged from RSS and joined BJP.
According to multiple Buxar based leaders who spoke to The Sunday Guardian, Choubey came to know that he was not being repeated only after the candidates list was released on Whatsapp groups.
“Before that, no one from the party, including Nadda even hinted that he will not be repeated. This is not the way a senior leader like him should have been treated, especially by the party president whom Choubey used to consider as a close friend. Baba (as Choubey is referred to by his supporters) was never expecting this betrayal from his old friend”, one of his closest associates told The Sunday Guardian.
In fact, Choubey’s associates had announced on 26 March that he will be doing a press conference in Delhi on 28 March but the same was cancelled on 27 March after he met Nadda and organisational secretary BL Santosh at the party’s headquarters. According to team members of Choubey, the two top leaders had managed to assuage the upset Choubey on that day.