Five Janata Dal (United) MPs - Prabhunath Singh, Rajiv Ranjan Singh ‘Lalan’, Kailash Baitha, George Fernandes and Meena Singh – quit from the Lok Sabha last week, protesting the “inaction” of the Central government in connection with the attacks on north Indians in Maharashtra.

JD(U) parliamentary party leader, Prabhunath Singh, said the Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, asked them to re-consider their decision, but later accepted the resignations on Tuesday.

The latest development can intensify the political one-upmanship among Bihar politicians over the issue. Seeking to raise the political cost of ‘resignations’, the protestors are saying that MLAs and MLCs in Bihar — a majority of whom belong to JD(U) and BJP — should also quit their seats for the protest to be meaningful.

Though the resignations, coming in the twilight of the current Lok Sabha, will not hurt, they can serve to give JD(U) and its leader - Bihar CM Nitish Kumar - an opportunity to score brownie points off his two rivals, Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad and Steel Minister Ramvilas Paswan.

As expected, the reactions of both Paswan and Lalu, to JD(U)’s resignations were sharp, scorning the resignations as cheap political stunt.

Talking to TOI, Paswan accused JD(U) of insincerity, saying that all parties had earlier decided that legislators - MLAs, MPs, MLCs should resign together. He added: “Now they have backtracked. And with elections barely a month or two away, the JD(U) Lok Sabha MPs have resigned, while their Rajya Sabha members are still holding on to their seats fast.”