The Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) on Tuesday expelled 15 of its leaders from the party for alleged anti-party activities, ANI reported. Those expelled include an MLA, former legislators and ex-ministers.

Among those expelled are Dadan Singh Yadav, Rameshwar Paswan, Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, Kanchan Kumari Gupta and Ranvijay Singh, according to Times Now.

JD(U)’s ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, also on Monday night expelled nine of its party leaders who have filed their nominations for the upcoming Assembly elections on a Lok Janshakti Party ticket. BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal expelled the nine leaders for six years for their anti-party activities. The leaders are Rajendra Singh , Usha Vidyarthi, Rameshwar Chaurasia, Mrinal Shekhar, Ravindra Yadav, Shweta Singh, Indu Kashyap, Anil Kumar and Ajay Pratap.

In a significant political development, Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party on October 4 had walked out of the National Grand Alliance over “ideological differences” with Janata Dal (United), but said it would remain a “strong partner” of the BJP and fight against Nitish Kumar. Chirag Paswan’s LJP is a member of the NDA at the Centre and his father Ram Vilas Paswan was a Union Minister till his death on October 8.

Elections in Bihar will be held in three phases between October 28 and November 7. The counting of votes will take place on November 10. This is the first election to be held in the country during the coronavirus pandemic. The Bihar Assembly has 243 seats, of which 38 are reserved for Scheduled Castes and two for Scheduled Tribes.