RJD MLA Dinesh Kumar Singh on Friday threatened to immolate himself if party chief Lalu Prasad deprives him of a ticket to contest the Assembly polls.
He is sitting on a dharna at the party office along with his supporters demand-ing ticket.
Dinesh represents Jagdishpur Assembly seat in Bhojpur district and his seat may be given to Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha whom Dinesh had defeated in the 2010 Assembly elections.
Bhagwan had contested the 2010 polls on a JDU ticket. However, during the Lok Sabha elections, he joined the RJD and contested from Ara but lost to the BJP candidate.
While sitting on the dharna, Dinesh said: "On several occasions, I have proved my loyalty towards the party and always stood like a rock. When 13 MLAs deserted the RJD, I was there to support. In the Rajya Sabha bypoll, I voted according to Lalu ji's instructions. I paraded in front of Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi in support of Nitish Kumar. I am always there in the front to save the party." Sources admitted that all of Dinesh's claims were true. However, they said he had been denied the ticket owing to his proximity with Madhepura MP Pappu Yadav, who was expelled from the RJD because of anti-party activities.
They attributed his slant towards the BJP to the ticket denial as well.
"It is a known fact that he is close to Pappu and in the past year, he has put the party in many embarrassing situations, which helped the BJP attack us. If you draw up a list of his antics during the Assembly session, you will go insane. The RJD chief had warned him not to do anything without the party's consent. However he never obeyed," said a senior RJD leader.
The BJP has always used Dinesh's acts to attack the ruling party. During the Assembly session in March 2015, he sat on an indefinite dharna for fulfilment of five demands. However, he had not got support of any legislator either from the RJD or the JDU. Later, he had found sympathisers in seven BJP legislators, who had joined his dharna.
Dinesh's open revolt against the party had become visible during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when he started spreading slander against his own party candidate, Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, instead of campaigning in his support.
However, going by the personality, Dinesh is more popular than Bhagwan and is believed to have an upper hand even if he contests as an Independent candidate.
According to the Election Commission's figures, Dinesh had got 55,556 votes, where-as Bhagwan had secured 45,373 votes in the 2010 Assembly polls.
Asked about his course of action after the dharna, Dinesh said: "I will sit on a hunger strike tomorrow (Saturday) and I would immolate myself in the party office on Sunday if I am denied the ticket."
Lalu, however, did not seem bothered about Dinesh's anger and said: "Such things can never change my decision and I do not care about such people. People are denied tickets during elections, it's very normal."
When The Telegraph asked Lalu about giving Assembly election ticket to Lok Sabha poll losers, Lalu said: "When there is a need, I have to give tickets to them as well. You should not be surprised."
