Four rebel JDU legislators - Gyanendra Singh Gyanu, Rajeshwar Raj, Dinesh Kushwaha and Suresh Chanchal - on Wednesday joined the BJP.

The four legislators switched sides at the state BJP office in the presence of Union minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy, the state president of the party, Mangal Pandey, and MLC Sanjay Mayukh. The BJP leaders claimed that more JDU legislators were expected to join the party ahead of the Assembly elections, which is set to be a high-pitched battle between the BJP and the grand alliance of the JDU, RJD and the Congress.

After joining the BJP, Gyanu - once considered very close to Nitish - launched a scathing attack on the chief minister. "Nitish is a politically dishonest person and has a habit of betraying people. He even deceived Samata Party founder George Fernandes and late Digvijay Singh," Gyanu said, adding that Nitish blackmailed both Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Fernandes for becoming a minister in the erstwhile Vajpayee-led NDA government at the Centre.

The JDU had suspended Gyanu and Suresh for going against the leadership of Nitish. The two others - Rajeshwar and Dinesh - are still JDU MLAs officially.

Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chudhary had last year disqualified Gyanu and Chanchal. But Patna High Court this year set aside the Speaker's decision of terminating their membership under the anti-defection law after the ruling party had sought action against them over alleged cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha polls.

Three-term Barh MLA Gyanu was an associate of Nitish from his Samata Party days. He was known as the trouble-shooter of the chief minister till he revolted against Nitish's leadership.

A source said Gyanu was aware of every strategy of Nitish. Talks about he joining the BJP started doing the rounds last year after the Union home ministry provided Z-category security to him.

Besides Gyanu, Sakra (Muzaffarpur) MLA Suresh, Karakat legislator Rajeshwar and Minapur MLA Dinesh also attacked Nitish and the JDU leadership. Suresh said: "Nitish became arrogant after the 2010 Assembly election. He started ignoring the JDU workers. He became more arrogant after a section of JDU leaders opposed the candidature of K.C. Tyagi in the Rajya Sabha polls in 2013."