(MENAFN- IANS) Patna, Oct 13 (IANS) In a major political development ahead of the Bihar Assembly Elections 2025, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday inducted two rebel leaders from the INDIA bloc, both of whom had won the last Assembly polls on RJD and Congress tickets, respectively.

Bihar unit BJP president Dilip Jaiswal formally welcomed Sangita Kumari, who had recently resigned from her Mohania Assembly seat of Kaimur district, and Siddharth Saurav, a two-term Congress MLA from Bikram Assembly seat of Patna district, into the party fold.

Both leaders were granted primary membership of the BJP at an event organised at the party's state headquarters in Patna.

Sangita Kumari had contested and won the 2020 Assembly elections as an RJD candidate, while Siddharth Saurav represented the Congress.

Both leaders tendered their resignations from their respective seats last week before joining the BJP.

The two had earlier shown signs of dissent within the opposition bloc during the February 2024 floor test of the Nitish Kumar-led government, when they sided with the ruling NDA despite being elected on opposition tickets.

Their defection, along with the support of other rebels -- including Chetan Anand (Sheohar), Neelam Devi (Mokama), and Prahalad Yadav (Suryagarha) - proved crucial in helping Nitish Kumar survive the confidence vote in the Assembly.

Political observers had since anticipated that these rebel MLAs would not be fielded again by their respective parties in the upcoming polls, making their entry into the BJP and JDU a likely move.

Welcoming them, BJP leaders described their induction as a boost to the party's grassroots strength ahead of the elections.

Earlier, on October 10, former Muzaffarpur MP Ajay Nishad rejoined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Nishad, accompanied by his wife Rama Nishad, formally returned to the BJP fold.

They were welcomed into the party by Dilip Jaiswal.

Ajay Nishad, who hails from a prominent political family, had earlier represented Muzaffarpur in the Lok Sabha in 2014 and 2019 on a BJP ticket but later switched to Congress after being denied a ticket by the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha Election.

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