Patna,(BiharTimes): There is nothing wrong in ruling party or alliance legislator(s) raising any issue in the state Assembly, which embarrasses the state government. Ruling Janata Dal (United) MLA Manjit Kumar Singh, otherwise a great fan of chief minister Nitish Kumar, is known for it. Recently a newspaper carried a special story on the way he had caught ministers off guard in the last several years.
But when RJD MLAs rushed to the well of the state Assembly on Monday to protest the killing of Kashinath Yadav in Jagdishpur Assembly segment of Bhojpur district on March 22, and demanded speedy trial in the case it made a news as this was something unexpected.
Not only that on issue of huge dues of sugarcane farmers, its legislator Raghvendra Pratap Singh pulled up the government.During Zero hour, when minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav sought time for government to reply on various issues, none else but its leader in the House, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, said that the government is avoiding answer.
Siddiqui, went on to call the state government deaf and dumb and strongly flayed the poor condition of government hospitals and cited the example of Siwan where violence took place after the killing of five school-children in a mishap.
As apparently a lot of bonhomie has been generated after the merger of RJD and JD (U)––along with six other parties––on April 15 nobody ever anticipated such an aggression from its members.
But as this development took place a day after chief minister Nitish Kumar gave a skip to the rally of Prajapati Samaj (Kumhars or potters) it was bound to be interpreted differently.
Both RJD leader Lalu Prasad and Nitish were supposed to attend the it, but the latter changed his mind in the last minute.Analysts are of the view that this embarrassed Lalu. The RJD’s aggressiveness in the House stems from this development.
Reports quoting RJD insiders said that the signal of going on offensive came from the top. It seems that the RJD leadership wants to keep its bargaining position strong and do not want to be taken for granted by Nitish. After all, their argument is that it is Nitish, who sought support and was so much eager for the merger. So he should be more accommodative and give up his stiffness.
Leaders like former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had always been claiming that as per the last year election RJD is a much bigger party than the JD(U) so it should be given due respect. So just on the eve of the naming of the merged party its legislators flexed their muscle.
The tragedy is that the JD(U) did not even come up with any explanation as to why Nitish skipped the Prajapati (Kumhar) rally. Many leaders of this caste are feeling let down as the chief minister had assured them that he would attend it.It gave the BJP members an opportunity to give support to the RJD members and they also shouted anti-government slogans.It appears the merger of the RJD and Janata Dal (United) is in trouble, teased Nand Kishore Yadav, the leader of opposition in the state Assembly.
