JD(U) on Monday suspended 21 party members from their primary memberships in Bihar over anti-party activities, ANI reported. The members are said to be close to party Rajya Sabha MP Sharad Yadav, according to TV reports. It has been learnt that JDU state president Vashistha Narayan Singh has taken the decision. This comes after Yadav was removed from the post of party’s leader in Rajya Sabha.

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Differences between Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Yadav surfaced after the former snapped ties with the Congress and the RJD, and allied with the BJP to form a new government in Bihar last month. Yadav, who is on a tour of Bihar, has said he still believes he is a part of the Grand Alliance with the RJD and the Congress. The JD(U) is not just Nitish Kumar’s party, but also his party, he has said.

Yadav also claimed that the real JD(U) was with him and the one with Kumar was ‘sarkari’ JD(U). Earlier on August 12, BJP president Amit Shah said in a tweet today that he had invited Kumar to join the ruling NDA.

Meanwhile, R C P Singh is the new JD(U) leader in the upper House, as per report. The MPs met Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to hand him a letter appointing Singh as the leader of the JD(U) in the upper house, the report said. Singh is a trusted lieutenant of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The JD(U) has 10 members in the Rajya Sabha. It had already suspended its Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar Ansari from the parliamentary party for attending a meeting of opposition parties convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.