Express News Service
PATNA: It seems that all is not well within the grand alliance in Bihar ahead of the Opposition party’s two-day meeting scheduled to be held in Bengaluru on July 17-18 to chalk out a strategy against BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and an RJD MLC indulged in a verbal duel during a legislature party meeting of the grand alliance held in the wake of five-day Monsoon session of Bihar assembly, which began on Monday.
The trouble started when Nitish asked RJD MLC Sunil Kumar Singh to refrain from issuing statements against the grand alliance in the media and also to keep himself away from Opposition BJP as he has a soft corner for the saffron party.
“Don’t do such things. You are close to Lalu Ji. You shared your pictures with union home minister Amit Shah on social media platforms. You are also willing to contest the election from Saran,” Nitish reportedly told Sunil at the meeting. Nitish didn’t stop there. He reportedly told RJD MLC that he was working on BJP’s agenda.
“You should follow principles of alliance and do not do such things in the larger interest of the alliance,” a lawmaker quoted Nitish as saying.
“Who is doing what and who is in whose contact, I know it very well. So I am asking you people, to refrain from doing such things in the larger interest of the grand alliance,” Nitish told the lawmakers at the meeting. This led to a verbal duel between Nitish and Sunil, who is also chairman of Biscouman.
Sunil retorted, “Nobody can question my integrity. I have been with Lalu ji for the last 27 years after seeing many ups and downs.”
He said that he was with RJD and would continue to serve the party till he breathed his last. He told Nitish that he had met union home minister Amit Shah at Cooperative conclave in New Delhi on July 1.
“As I am chairman of Biscomaun (Bihar state cooperative marketing union ltd) and director of cooperative societies, it is quite obvious to meet the union Cooperative minister at the function, which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Later I shared the pictures on social media,” he said.
As the situation turned volatile, deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav intervened and asked his party’s legislator to keep quiet. “I am keeping quiet because of Lalu ji. He has asked me not to speak anymore,” Sunil reportedly said.
The spat didn’t go well with GA ally Congress. Congress MLA Ajit Sharma said that the chief minister has no right to reprimand any MLA/MLC belonging to other parties. “It’s true that we all are part of a grand alliance. But it doesn’t mean that the chief minister can reprimand anyone as per his wishes,” he said.
Earlier, a war of words broke out between Sunil Singh and Ashok Choudhary over the issue of posting of an IAS officer K K Pathak in the education department as additional chief secretary recently. Choudhary is considered to be close to Nitish.
The trouble started when RJD MLC Sunil Singh remarked that chief minister Nitish Kumar deliberately posted senior IAS officer KK Pathak in the education department so that the education minister Prof Chandrashekhar could be reined in through the officer.
Incidentally, Prof Chandrashekhar who belongs to RJD has a stand-off with Pathak recently as the minister had written yellow letters to Pathak and director-level officers of the department to express his displeasure over the style of their functioning.
In the letter, the minister, while raising objections to their style of functioning, also asked them not to leak department-related information to the media. “To tame his ministers, Nitish attaches officers like Pathak with them,” RJD MLC Singh said while attacking JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar.
Singh, who is considered close to Lalu and his wife Rabri Devi, also attacked senior JD (U) minister Ashok Choudhary for claiming that he was raising the issue of the minister-officer face-off due to his personal agenda.
He said that Choudhary would have been in jail had RJD chief Lalu Prasad not helped him. Choudhary’s name had figured in the murder of senior Congress leader Rajo Singh.
RJD leader alleged that Choudhary had the habit of changing parties and he would betray Nitish too. He also claimed that Choudhary had once used objectionable language against former chief minister Rabri Devi.
Choudhary had also recalled ‘Jungle Raj’ days, an oblique reference to the Lalu-Rabri regime, and also alleged that Singh was speaking ‘language of BJP’. Choudhary sharpening his attack on RJD MLC Singh said that he was not the ultimate voice in the RJD as Lalu and former chief minister Rabri Devi had final say in the policy-related major issues.
Opposition BJP took a jibe at the ongoing spat between RJD and JD(U). Former Bihar deputy chief minister and BJP Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi said that the ongoing verbal duel between two allies has an adverse impact on development works.
“The ongoing tussle between RJD and JD(U) has stalled development works while chief minister Nitish Kumar is a mute spectator,” alleged Sushil Modi.
He said the bureaucrats are so arrogant during GA regime that they don’t bother to listen to their political bosses (read respective ministers) and the spat between Prof Chandrashekhar and KK Pathak is no exception. “Yet leaders of both ruling partners claim that all is well in GA,” remarked Modi.
PATNA: It seems that all is not well within the grand alliance in Bihar ahead of the Opposition party’s two-day meeting scheduled to be held in Bengaluru on July 17-18 to chalk out a strategy against BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and an RJD MLC indulged in a verbal duel during a legislature party meeting of the grand alliance held in the wake of five-day Monsoon session of Bihar assembly, which began on Monday.
The trouble started when Nitish asked RJD MLC Sunil Kumar Singh to refrain from issuing statements against the grand alliance in the media and also to keep himself away from Opposition BJP as he has a soft corner for the saffron party.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
“Don’t do such things. You are close to Lalu Ji. You shared your pictures with union home minister Amit Shah on social media platforms. You are also willing to contest the election from Saran,” Nitish reportedly told Sunil at the meeting. Nitish didn’t stop there. He reportedly told RJD MLC that he was working on BJP’s agenda.
“You should follow principles of alliance and do not do such things in the larger interest of the alliance,” a lawmaker quoted Nitish as saying.
“Who is doing what and who is in whose contact, I know it very well. So I am asking you people, to refrain from doing such things in the larger interest of the grand alliance,” Nitish told the lawmakers at the meeting. This led to a verbal duel between Nitish and Sunil, who is also chairman of Biscouman.
Sunil retorted, “Nobody can question my integrity. I have been with Lalu ji for the last 27 years after seeing many ups and downs.”
He said that he was with RJD and would continue to serve the party till he breathed his last. He told Nitish that he had met union home minister Amit Shah at Cooperative conclave in New Delhi on July 1.
“As I am chairman of Biscomaun (Bihar state cooperative marketing union ltd) and director of cooperative societies, it is quite obvious to meet the union Cooperative minister at the function, which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Later I shared the pictures on social media,” he said.
As the situation turned volatile, deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav intervened and asked his party’s legislator to keep quiet. “I am keeping quiet because of Lalu ji. He has asked me not to speak anymore,” Sunil reportedly said.
The spat didn’t go well with GA ally Congress. Congress MLA Ajit Sharma said that the chief minister has no right to reprimand any MLA/MLC belonging to other parties. “It’s true that we all are part of a grand alliance. But it doesn’t mean that the chief minister can reprimand anyone as per his wishes,” he said.
Earlier, a war of words broke out between Sunil Singh and Ashok Choudhary over the issue of posting of an IAS officer K K Pathak in the education department as additional chief secretary recently. Choudhary is considered to be close to Nitish.
The trouble started when RJD MLC Sunil Singh remarked that chief minister Nitish Kumar deliberately posted senior IAS officer KK Pathak in the education department so that the education minister Prof Chandrashekhar could be reined in through the officer.
Incidentally, Prof Chandrashekhar who belongs to RJD has a stand-off with Pathak recently as the minister had written yellow letters to Pathak and director-level officers of the department to express his displeasure over the style of their functioning.
In the letter, the minister, while raising objections to their style of functioning, also asked them not to leak department-related information to the media. “To tame his ministers, Nitish attaches officers like Pathak with them,” RJD MLC Singh said while attacking JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar.
Singh, who is considered close to Lalu and his wife Rabri Devi, also attacked senior JD (U) minister Ashok Choudhary for claiming that he was raising the issue of the minister-officer face-off due to his personal agenda.
He said that Choudhary would have been in jail had RJD chief Lalu Prasad not helped him. Choudhary’s name had figured in the murder of senior Congress leader Rajo Singh.
RJD leader alleged that Choudhary had the habit of changing parties and he would betray Nitish too. He also claimed that Choudhary had once used objectionable language against former chief minister Rabri Devi.
Choudhary had also recalled ‘Jungle Raj’ days, an oblique reference to the Lalu-Rabri regime, and also alleged that Singh was speaking ‘language of BJP’. Choudhary sharpening his attack on RJD MLC Singh said that he was not the ultimate voice in the RJD as Lalu and former chief minister Rabri Devi had final say in the policy-related major issues.
Opposition BJP took a jibe at the ongoing spat between RJD and JD(U). Former Bihar deputy chief minister and BJP Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi said that the ongoing verbal duel between two allies has an adverse impact on development works.
“The ongoing tussle between RJD and JD(U) has stalled development works while chief minister Nitish Kumar is a mute spectator,” alleged Sushil Modi.
He said the bureaucrats are so arrogant during GA regime that they don’t bother to listen to their political bosses (read respective ministers) and the spat between Prof Chandrashekhar and KK Pathak is no exception. “Yet leaders of both ruling partners claim that all is well in GA,” remarked Modi.