Patna, Oct. 2: Senior JDU leader and Rajya Sabha member Ram Chandra Prasad Singh took a dig at rebel JDU leader and former party president Sharad Yadav after the Election Commission (EC) dismissed his petition - claiming that the real JDU belongs to him - for the second time.

Ram Chandra called Sharad 'senile' and said he would soon lose his Rajya Sabha membership. The party led by Nitish has approached Rajya Sabha chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu seeking Sharad's disqualification from its membership. On August 12, Sharad, who opposed Nitish's decision to ally with the BJP, was removed as the party's leader in Rajya Sabha after which Ram Chandra replaced him.

'On August 25, the Sharad faction filed a petition with the EC staking claim to the party's name and symbol. On September 12, the EC dismissed the petition saying there weren't any document to back it,' Ram Chandra said.

The EC had dismissed the Sharad faction's petition on three grounds - it had no supportive document; no mention of any Legislative members on his side; and there was no sign of two of the three advocates appealing on his behalf. Ram Chandra said signatures of Kapil Sibal and Jawed Raza were not as petitioners from Sharad's side.

'Again, the Sharad Yadav faction has approached EC, but we have come to know that for the second time, the commission has dismissed the petition. Sharad ji is now saying he will go to EC a second time but he is forgetting that actually it is the third time. You have to understand where the problem lies, it's his age factor. He has become senile,' Ram Chandra said.

Repeated attempts to contact the Sharad faction leaders proved futile.