Sushil Kumar Modi in New Delhi on Sunday. (PTI)

New Delhi/Patna, June 8: Sushil Kumar Modi will continue as Bihar’s deputy chief minister as majority of legislators decided in his favour at a secret voting that central leaders said the BJP had no precedence of.

The BJP leadership had allowed a secret ballot in New Delhi this evening, by its MLAs and MLCs from Bihar, to test if Modi enjoys the state’s support.

A source close to Arun Jaitley, a member of the Rajnath Singh-headed committee deciding on the leadership logjam, confirmed Modi’s success with PTI stating that he got 35 votes out 67.

While Modi expressed happiness at the outcome, the rebels who had crafted a massive campaign for change of leadership were numbed. “I am happy that legislators have evinced faith in me,” Modi told The Telegraph late tonight.

“We can’t believe that” said one prominent rebel leader when sought his reaction half-an-hour before the formal declaration of results. Refusing to say anything on record, he emphatically said: “We won’t accept that outcome.”

However, a few hours after the voting, a statement released by the party said: “It has been decided that there shall be no change in the leadership and ...Modi ... will continue as leader of the legislature party.” The statement claimed that the decision was taken after central observers Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu discussed the outcome with L.K. Advani and Rajnath.

Surprisingly, the official statement did not talk of “secret voting” and instead said that Sushma and Naidu took the opinion of the MLAs and the MLCs.

Trouble began in BJP’s Bihar unit, where the party is in power with the JD(U), after last month’s cabinet shuffle in which some BJP ministers were dropped. Ruling NDA circles in Bihar were seen waiting for the results with baited breath. Chief minister Nitish Kumar and his JD(U) members desisted from commenting on what they describe as BJP’s “internal” matter.

The rebel leaders, who chose not to speak on record, expressed surprise that the outcome of polling wasn’t revealed by the central leadership. The rebels had claimed that they enjoyed the support of 35 of the 55 MLAs and nine of the 14 MLCs. Modi too had told the central leadership that he enjoyed majority support.

Today’s secret voting may not herald the end of factionalism in the party. “This is not the solution,” said a rebel BJP leader, expressing “total disbelief” at the outcome.