New Delhi, March 10 :     The Samata Party, which had been trying to divide the Rashtriya Janata Dal, is now facing the threat of a split in its ranks following the reinstatement of the Rabri Devi government. The Samata has eight MLAs in the Assembly, of which at least three are likely to form a separate outfit after March 17, party sources indicated today. Senior leader Shivanand Tiwary, an old friend of RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, is leading the rebels. Efforts are on to rope in Kurmi leader Brishen Patel, too. Tiwary and Patel, both MLAs, had criticised the Samata leadership for ?saffronising? the party. They had met former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar in Delhi last month to discuss launching a new party. But, sources said, Shekhar dissuaded them, saying the time was not ripe. The rebels are now waiting for the RJD government to prove its majority on the floor of the House. The plan is to first split the state unit and then target the Lok Sabha MPs. Of the 13 party MPs, including the one nominated, four are rebels. They are Abdul Ghafoor, Prabhunath Singh, Shakuni Chowdhry, Vasist Narayan (all from Bihar) and Kalpanath Rai (from Uttar Pradesh). Shakuni Chowdhry has been the harshest critic of the leadership. Sources said the leadership has recently tried to win him back by promising a ministerial berth, but he is still sulking. Though Chowdhry denies any prospect of a split, he feels the Bihar fiasco will hit Samata the hardest as the backwards are likely to rally around Laloo Yadav. If Brishen Patel joins the RJD, half the Kurmi votes will shift to Laloo, a Samata leader said. An RSS Governor, the Ranbir Sena and talk of upper-caste votes consolidating behind the BJP-Samata combine will drive the backwards towards the RJD, he said. Rejecting the view that the Congress has lost the game, he said the party has sent a good message to Muslims and the backwards and it will stand to gain in the ?Laloo decline?, which was bound to happen sooner or later. The Samata will commit another blunder if it writes off the Congress, he added. Chowdhry said if the leadership does not wake up now, the party is doomed. He said, without naming party president George Fernandes, that ?some leaders are more loyal to the BJP than Samata.? Chowdhry also blasted the leadership for not removing Raghunath Jha as state unit chief. He said Jha would preside over the slow death of the party in the state. Chowdhry said allowed a free hand, he would have roped in Ram Vilas Paswan and Anand Mohan too into the Samata fold. Last month, Chowdhry met both leaders at Khagaria to discuss strategy. The Samata-Paswan-Mohan combination would have been formidable as a checkmate against Laloo, he said.