Patna: In a major crackdown on rebels, the ruling Janata Dal United (JD-U) in Bihar headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has suspended 21 leaders from the primary membership of the party for joining the company of revolting party parliamentarian Sharad Yadav who has launched a campaign against the present government.

All the leaders who got axed had joined Yadav during his three-day campaign in Bihar which concluded on Saturday. Yadav is angry at the way chief minister Kumar formed government with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar after abruptly breaking alliance with the Grand Alliance, and has announced to bring the new Grand Alliance government in place after removing the present NDA government.

Of the 21 suspended from the JD-U, three are former minister, parliamentarian and state lawmaker while the rest are block heads, state council members and other key party officials. All were found joining Yadav’s campaign against the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar which promoted the JD-U leadership to act against them.

“All have been suspended from the party for indulging in anti-party activities,” JD-U general secretary Anil Kumar said. He said all had joined the Yadav programme despite stern warming by the party.

Yadav kicked off the three-day campaign against Nitish Kumar government on August 10 during which he made extensive tour of the state, held interactions with the masses and then rejected the present government, terming it as violation of “People’s Mandate”. He also described Kumar’s move to form government with BJP as “unethical”.

Kumar formed government with support BJP’s support last month after breaking midway the 20-month-long alliance with the Grand Alliance which was given the mandate to rule. The Grand Alliance comprising the RJD, JD-U and the Congress had bagged 178 seats in 243-member Bihar assembly in the last 2015 assembly polls against 53 seats won by the BJP.

“Never before in the 70 years history of India’s independence, I came across any incident wherein the two parties which fought against each other in the elections with different manifestoes and different ideologies joined hands together after elections. This is compete insult to people’s mandate and I will continue to oppose it,” was how Yadav went on telling the masses all through his public meetings for three consecutive days. The three-day campaign ended on Saturday. Quite many JD-U leaders joined him despite stern warning by the JD-U leadership.

Soon after that the party launched a crackdown on Yadav supporters. The first action came when the JD-U leadership suspended party’s Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar from the parliamentary board for attending a meeting of the opposition parties called by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi but it is yet to act against Yadav for his “anti-party” activities although it has cracked down on his supporters. The lone action which came against him was his removal as the leader of the JD-U parliamentary party leader ion Rajya Sabha.

“We find it hard to initiate action against Sharad Yadav since he had associated with us since the beginning. It seems he himself has left us,” JD-U general secretary KC Tyagi said.

Reports said the JD-U leadership has got apprehensive of a vertical split in the party as Yadav faction claims to have the support of 14 state presidents over the party and is also planning to move the Election Commission for staking claim over party’s election symbol.

It will indeed will a major problem for the chief minister if his faction loses the election symbol which he had been using for the past 14 years. The Yadav faction which has two Rajya Sabha and one LS Member further claims that it was he (Yadav) who headed the JD-U when Nitish Kumar’s Samata Party was merged with it in 2003.