Patna: The general public spat between leaders of the Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal goes past RJD MLA Sudhakar Singh’s statements towards the Bihar chief minister and the controversial feedback of schooling minister Chandra Shekhar on ‘Ramcharitmanas’. Its roots lie in CM Nitish Kumar’s refusal to offer house to the RJD in administrative choices, ThePrint has learnt.
“This authorities was shaped in August final yr. Since then not a single RJD minister has been in a position to get an officer of his selection. Even the well being and highway building division headed by Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav continues to be headed by Pratyaya Amrit — who has a status of being the CM’s man,” an RJD minister informed ThePrint.
The 1991 batch IAS officer is understood to be Nitish’s go-to man, who has bailed the CM out at varied junctures, together with the Covid pandemic.
Nitish additionally has not crammed vacancies in boards and companies through which the RJD had hoped to “alter” its personal representatives. The couple he has shaped, just like the Most Backward Courses Fee, has JD(U) nominees on the helm. Whereas JD(U)’s Navin Arya was made the chairman of the Fee, the RJD needed to stay content material with the remaining membership within the panel.
A collection of vital appointments within the state administration have additionally seemingly not been to the RJD’s likings. Whereas appointing R.S. Bhatti final month as the brand new Bihar Police chief on the final second, Nitish ignored the plea of his ally which is alleged to have most well-liked one other senior IPS officer Alok Raj to steer the drive.
Nitish additionally made Bhatti’s predecessor S.Ok. Singhal the chairman of central choice council, which conducts varied exams together with these for recruiting police constables. The RJD had come out towards Singhal’s type of functioning, together with his skill to steer the police drive, when it was within the opposition ranks earlier than August final yr.
Former Bihar minister P.Ok. Shahi’s appointment this month because the advocate normal additional irked JD(U)’s ally. Shahi had earlier served in the identical capability from 2005 to 2010.
In 2013, RJD chief Lalu Prasad had alleged that the trial courtroom decide in a fodder rip-off case was biased as he’s a relative of Shahi, then schooling minister within the Nitish Kumar authorities.
Throughout his ongoing Sadbhavana Yatra, Nitish has prevented together with RJD ministers in his interactions with the individuals and made it a JD(U) present.
“Every time Tejashwi Yadav raised a few of these grievances to the CM, Nitish dismissed him with a ‘ho jayega’ (will likely be taken care of) and never doing something about it. He would say that he (Tejashwi) ought to focus on 2025, when he’ll lead the alliance,” the RJD minister mentioned, stressing that being ignored has led to resentment amongst RJD leaders and employees.
On the floor, JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar and his RJD counterpart Mrityunjay Tiwari informed ThePrint that the CM was entitled to take these choices.
Final month, throughout his ongoing Jan Suraj Yatra, political strategist Prashant Kishor had hinted that the alliance may be over earlier than 2025, when state election is due in Bihar. In 2020, Kishor fell out with Nitish, who in 2018 had made him the JD(U) nationwide vice-president.
Additionally Learn: Why Bihar CM Nitish’s newest yatra has BJP scoffing, JD(U) weary — ‘entire present is staged’
The bitterness
When the Mahagathbandhan got here to energy in Bihar, political observers thought Nitish would play second fiddle and would shift to Delhi leaving Bihar to Tejashwi.
Nevertheless, Nitish has mentioned the following election will likely be contested beneath Tejashwi’s management, suggesting that he intends to maintain the CM’s chair all by his present time period.
It was solely within the first week of January that Nitish introduced he would work for making certain unity in opposition ranks at nationwide stage after the Meeting’s Finances session concludes on 31 March.
However the bitterness between the JD(U) and the RJD has been ongoing since October final yr when former agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh bad-mouthed Nitish and questioned his governance. As JD(U) was bent on motion towards Sudhakar, the RJD lastly relented Wednesday when its nationwide vice-president Abdul Bari Siddiqui issued a show-cause discover to Sudhakar.
Siddiqui informed ThePrint he had completed it on the instruction of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who’s recuperating in Singapore after a kidney transplant.
Schooling minister Chandra Shekhar, in the meantime, is but to tender an apology for his remarks about ‘Ramcharitmanas’, as demanded by the JD(U). Tejashwi has additionally defended Shekhar, asserting it was a matter of freedom of speech.
The RJD chief had claimed the poem primarily based on ‘Ramayana’ “spreads hatred within the society” in addition to propagates discrimination towards sure castes.
“After the RJD’s show-cause discover (to Singh), we anticipate issues to chill down as elections are coming close to and allies don’t need to disturb one another because it has an hostile influence on the vote financial institution. However the resentments will likely be there,” a senior JD(U) chief conceded to ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Additionally Learn: From ‘jamaat’ to ‘jaat’ — how Nitish is utilizing the caste census in Bihar to nook the BJP