Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 17: The Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in his “new avatar” is facing flaks from his erstwhile ruling partners, the BJP, for handing over the law ministry to a minister from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) who himself is “absconding from law.”
With the BJP central leadership deciding to intensify the party’s attacks on Nitish Kumar to prepare grounds for the 2024 Parliamentary elections and 2025 state Assembly elections, the RJD member of the Bihar legislative council Kartikeya Singh, who was sworn-in as a minister on Tuesday and handed over the law department, became the party’s first target.
The BJP, which turned into the opposition camp in Bihar from the ruling party in a span of a few hours last week after Kumar left the NDA and rekindled ties with Lalu Prasad’s RJD, has been attacking the new cabinet ever since 31 ministers took oath on Tuesday. Singh was reportedly wanted in an alleged kidnapping case of 2014 and was supposed to respond to a warrant in Danapur court on Tuesday when instead he was taking oath at the Raj-Bhavan in Patna as a minister from the RJD quota.
“If Kartikeya Singh (RJD) had a warrant against him, he should have surrendered. But he has taken oath as Law Minister. I ask Nitish, is he trying to take Bihar back to Lalu’s times? Kartikeya Singh should be immediately dismissed,” said BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi. Former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad echoed Sushil Modi urging the Patna High Court to take cognisance of the issues pertaining to Singh and wanted Nitish Kumar to “show some courage” and take strict action against the new law minister of Bihar.
The law minister’s advocate Madhusudan Sharma, however, pointed out that on August 12 the court had granted Singh relief till September 1 and there was no question of his evading the court warrant. He also quashed allegations of his client absconding in the kidnapping case as “baseless”.
“He’s not an accused in the matter, (and) his involvement not mentioned in the probe…no evidence found against him, (and) police proved him innocent,” Sharma said.
When asked, Nitish Kumar told media persons on Wednesday that he was not aware about any pending case against Singh. “I do not know, I have no information about this,” said Nitish Kumar. But the BJP took a jibe at the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government and said the state’s law minister should be immediately dismissed.
A total of 31 ministers were inducted into the Bihar cabinet on Tuesday from various parties that are part of the Mahagathbandhan, the Grand Alliance, in the state. The new ministers administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Phagu Chauhan, included 16 from RJD, 11 from JD(U), two from the Congress, one from Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and one independent.
While Chief Minister Nitish Kumar kept the crucial Home Department portfolio with himself, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav took charge of the Health portfolio in the first Cabinet expansion of the newly-formed Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar. The JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary got the Finance Department and RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav was given charge of Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Nitish Kumar had broken away from the BJP and formed a government with the RJD and other parties earlier this month. The Chief Minister and his deputy – RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav – took oath on August 10. The Bihar Grand Alliance has a combined strength of 163. Its effective strength climbed to 164 after Independent MLA Sumit Kumar Singh extended support to Nitish Kumar. The new government is likely to prove its majority in the Bihar Assembly on August 24.
The BJP’s central leadership will hold a meeting with the party’s Bihar unit leaders here on Tuesday, days after the JD(U) parted ways with it and formed a new government in the state. They are likely to deliberate upon the BJP’s future course of action, and the strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, sources said, adding organisational changes may also come up for discussion. The meeting will be chaired by BJP national president JP Nadda and general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh will also be present.