Patna: Chaos has ensued in his party as well as the Bihar government Nitish Kumar heads. On one hand, several JDU MLAs are upset with the cabinet expansion and on the other, law minister Kartikeya Singh's criminal record has put Nitish in a spot of bother.
Not only this, Nitish is maintaining distance from RJD ministers as was visible on Wednesday when no RJD quota ministers were present when Nitish was doing a review meeting of the department related to RJD ministers. Nitish was doing a review meeting over drought and less rainfall in the state affecting the farmers, however, agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh and disaster management department minister Shahnawaz Alam -- both from RJD -- were not present.
Ever since Nitish formed the government with RJD after dumping BJP in Bihar, the situation has become tense for the veteran leader. It all started with Kartikeya Singh against whom an arrest warrant was issued in a kidnapping case. Singh was supposed to surrender on August 16 but he chose to take the oath the same day. Nitish had expressed ignorance over the issue claiming he was not aware of it.
Another bombshell was dropped Wednesday evening when sitting JDU MLA from Rupauli assembly seat Bima Bharti threatened to resign as MLA if Lesi Singh would not be dropped from the cabinet. Bima levelled serious charges against her own minister seeking intervention from CM.
“If Lesi Singh is not dropped from the cabinet, I will resign as a member of the Bihar legislative assembly. She was engaged in anti-party activities and the CM must intervene in it," Bharti alleged on Wednesday.
Also read: Bihar law minister accused of kidnapping, Nitish, Lalu jump in defence
Lesi Singh is the women face of the Bihar cabinet on whom Nitish has full trust and that was the reason that she has been made minister for the third time in his cabinet. She has been given the food and consumer protection department in the new grand alliance government. Nitish, on the other hand, reacted sharply over the allegations levelled by Bharti and stated that whatever the latter has said is "baseless".
“I had made her (Bima Bharti) minister two times in 2014 and in 2019. Is it possible to make everyone minister? I gave her the opportunity twice. We will first try to make her understand. In fact, I called her and said that if she wants to meet me she can come anytime but she refused. If she is thinking of something then she is free to do so," Nitish said at IGIMS where Bijendra Yadav has been admitted following a complaint of health issue.
Nitish has to deal on several fronts from MLAs getting upset to allegations against his own cabinet ministers. When the oath-taking ceremony was held on 16, August at Raj Bhavan four JDU MLAs Pankaj Mishra, Sudharshan, Sanjiv Kumar and Rajkumar Singh held separate meetings and did not attend the oath-taking ceremony.
JDU parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha is also believed to be upset after he did not find any place in the new cabinet. He had not even attended the oathtaking ceremony and kept himself busy in the national capital.
“If any decision would be put upon the MLAs and lawmakers without their consent there would be discontent. In days to come more discontent would be visible in the Grand Alliance because a lot of people are unhappy. Nitish Ji has compromised with his ideology," BJP spokesperson Sanjay Tiger told ETV Bharat.
JDU minister Madan Sahni on other hand claimed that all is well in Grand Alliance and everyone has faith in Nitish Kumar. "Whenever any change takes place, people have a lot of expectations and everything cannot be fulfilled, however, at last everyone has faith in the leadership of Nitish Kumar," Sahni said.
Senior journalist Ravi Upadhayay opined that Nitish is not happy with the present situation. "The TRP of Nitish Kumar in the country is his face. The image of good governance, zero tolerance against crime, corruption and communalism. That's the reason he is maintaining a distance from those people. Though he is working but somewhere I feel that he is not happy with the present situation because his line of action is not matching up," Upadhayay asserted.
