Patna,(BiharTimes): After former chief minister Nitish Kumar, it is now the turn of his loyalists in the Jitan Ram Manjhi cabinet, to skip the functions in which he is invited.
On Thursday it happened for the second time in a fortnight. Five empty chairs with name-plates on the dais at the seminar organised by Bihar Rajya Arajkiye Prarambhik Sikshak Sangrah Morcha in Shri Krishna Memorial Hall said it all. It was here that Manjhi said that his days as chief minister are numbered.
HRD Minister Brishen Patel, who was invited as the chief guest, Food Minister Shyam Rajak, Rural Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shrawan Kumar, Urban Development Minister Samrat Chaudhary and Animal Husbandry Minister Baidyanath Sahni cited one reason or the other for not attending it. A couple of them even said that they did not get any formal invitation while others said that they had some other engagements.
However, Shrawan Kumar, President of the Morcha said the organizers had invited all the five ministers and they had assured that they would come.
Most of these ministers said that it would be wrong to attach political meaning to their absence as Manjhi is their chief minister and they have shared dais with him.
But as this has happened for the second time within two weeks it is bound to raise question. Only on Oct 21 last Nitish Kumar, along with five ministers of the Manjhi cabinet, suddenly flew to New Delhi to attend the birth anniversary of the first chief minister Shri Krishna Singh when they were invited to a similar function in Patna too.
Lallan Singh, P K Shahi and Vijay Chaudhary were the notable among the five who abstained and went with Nitish. The state JD(U) chief Bashistha Narayan Singh also went. The media than speculated that Nitish flew out at the final moment as he did not want to share platform with Manjhi.
Only one minister Mahachandra Prasad Singh shared the dais along with former Union minister and Congress leader Akhilesh Singh. The latter even took a potshot at Lallan Singh.
Commentators said that the absence of the ministers for the second time in quick succession suggest that the power struggle within the JD(U) is at its peak and the ministers are simply dancing to the tune of Nitish, their real boss.