New Delhi:

The BJP has taken action against former Union Minister and MP Jayant Sinha after he allegedly failed to cast his vote today. The party has issued a show-cause notice against him, claiming he has not been taking part in “organisational work and election campaigning” ever since Manish Jaiswal was declared a candidate from the Hazaribagh seat in Jharkhand. Mr Sinha, who in March expressed his desire not to contest the Lok Sabha polls, is the sitting MP from the high-profile seat.

“You are not taking any interest in organisational work and election campaigning ever since the party declared Manish Jaiswal as the candidate from the Hazaribagh Lok Sabha seat. You did not even feel the need to exercise your vote. The party’s image has been maligned because of your conduct,” BJP state general secretary Aditya Sahu said in a notice.

The party has asked Mr Sinha to explain his stand within two days. The 61-year-old is yet to respond to the notice.

On March 2, Mr Sinha, in a post on X, requested BJP chief JP Nadda to “relieve me of my direct electoral duties”. He said he wanted to focus his “efforts on combating global climate change in Bharat and around the world”. Hours later, the BJP announced Mr Jaiswal as its candidate from the urban constituency in Jharkhand, which was once represented by Yashwant Sinha and later his son, Jayant Sinha.

Another MP who made an identical post was Gautam Gambhir, who said that he wanted to be relieved of his political duties to focus on his “upcoming cricket commitments”.

The BJP has fielded Harsh Malhotra from the east Delhi constituency, replacing its incumbent MP Gambhir.

The election machinery of the BJP, which has conducted extensive surveys and held long deliberations on every Lok Sabha seat decided not to repeat Gautam Gambhir and Jayant Sinha, sources had told NDTV.

Mr Sinha had won the seat by a margin of 4.79 lakh votes, defeating Congress’s Gopal Sahu in 2019.

Polling was held in three constituencies in Jharkhand’s second round of Lok Sabha constituencies today. In the Gandey assembly by-poll where jailed former chief minister Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana Soren is the JMM contestant, 68.26 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise.

Hazaribagh registered the highest voter turnout of 64.32 per cent, followed by Chatra (62.96 per cent) and Koderma (61.86 per cent).