Seeking to steal a march over Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar-led Janta Dal-United announced on Thursday that its five Lok Sabha members from Bihar will resign on Friday to protest the attacks on North Indians in Maharashtra.
"The party MPs will submit their resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee tomorrow morning," party
parliamentary leader and member of Parliament Prabhunath Singh told news persons in Delhi.
The decision has come at a time when Prasad was collecting resignations from his party's MPs in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha as also members of legislative assemblies and legislative councils and had announced to take a decision in this regard by November 15.
Prabhunath Singh said that there was no option left for his party but asking its Lok Sabha members to resign as
the Maharashtra government was "patronising" those involved in such attacks and the Central government was "silent" over the issue.
"The decision was taken as no action was taken against the culprits even after an all-party delegation of Bihar MPs met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a few days ago in New Delhi," Singh said.
Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav, himself a Rajya Sabha member, said that there was no need for party members from the Upper House to resign.
"When Lok Sabha members resign, power goes out from Parliament," he said dubbing the demand for resignation of Rajya Sabha members and MLAs and MLCs as "illogical."
The JD-U, which is heading the government in Bihar, had announcned last week that its MPs from Lok Sabha will resign after the Chhath Puja, which concluded on Wednesday.