With its share of Lok Sabha seats getting nearly halved this time post return of JD-U to the NDA camp, the Bihar BJP faces the toughest challenge to keep its flock together ahead of the upcoming LS polls. Bihar has a total of 40 LS seats in which the BJP is contesting on only 17 seats against 30, which means 13 candidates who fought elections on BJP tickets last time will have to go ticketless.

The party suffered the first major setback on Friday when former parliamentarian Uday Singh resigned from the BJP alleging the party leadership has surrendered before the JDU of chief minister Nitish Kumar alleging he was given “a massive share of seats” under the seat-sharing deal. The BJP made a huge climbdown this time by sparing 17 seats for its new ally, the JDU, while remaining six seats were left for the LJP of Ram Vilas Paswan.

Singh also attacked the party leadership’s move to share power with Nitish Kumar forgetting its bitter experiences with him in the past and also the way his government is rapidly losing goodwill.

“Now the BJP will end up sharing the blame for his misdeeds,” he explained. Singh who represented the politically-significant Purnia LS seat for two consecutive terms apparently quit the BJP over the lurking fear of not getting the party ticket . The Purnia LS seat is currently represented by JD-U. He, though, has cited other reasons behind quitting the party.

He is upset with the top party leadership as they are ignoring the common workers and not giving them appointments despite repeated requests. In his support, he cites the case of former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha who was denied appointment by the BJP chief Amit Shah despite his repeated requests as a result of which he eventually resigned from the NDA. The sitting BJP MP from Sasaram, Chhedi Paswan too has publicly questioned the BJP’s rational behaviour behind allotting as many as 17 LS seats to the JD-U . “This is not a good decision of the party. The JD-U should have been given a maximum of 10 seats,” Paswan said.

Two sitting BJP MPs, Shatrughan Sinha and Kirti Jha Azad have rebelled against the party leadership. Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha who represents the Patna Sahib seat hits out at prime minister and his policies in public but also gone on meeting the Opposition leaders or attending their rallies. When a local media asked him why doesn’t he quit the BJP if he is not happy , he shot back, “Why doesn’t the party expel me out?” He didn’t stop at that. He has even gone on heaping praises on Nehru-Gandhi family describing this family as “national builders” while the PM and his entire party go on attacking them. “Whatever you see today, such as the IITs, IIM, roads and industrialization—they are the gifts of this family,” he told at a media function in Patna.

Further, he even praises Congress president Rahul Gandhi saying he had noticed a remarkable level of maturity in him in recent months and advised every party presidents to learn from him. “The Congress party under him won three key Indian states despite the presence of EVMs,” said Sinha.

“Also, the way Rahul Gandhi is presenting the facts before the masses, is worth commendable,” he added. He has also declared to contest the next LS polls from the same Patna Sahib seat.

“Whatever be the situation, location will be the same,” Sinha said, while there is a wide speculation in the media that the BJP may field deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi from this seat.