Trouble in Bihar's ruling alliance as RJD ministers skip Nitish's event

All does not seem well between ruling allies JD-U and RJD in Bihar in the New Year, with one such example cropping up in an event of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar here on Tuesday.

The fourth anniversary of one of Nitish Kumar's pet projects "Jan Jeevan Hariyali Yojana" was held in Samrat Ashok convention centre but none of the ministers under the RJD quota were present.

The project is primarily related to environment, forest and climate change, apart from agriculture, irrigation, water resources, and other departments but none of the ministers including Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Minister Tej Pratap Yadav was present. Even Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who returned from Delhi after celebrating the new year, did not go there.

Besides them, Agriculture Minister Sarvajeet Kumar, Education Minister Chandrashekher Yadav, Land Reform and Revenue Minister Alok Mehta, and PHED Minister Lalit Yadav were also not present.

During the event, only Finance Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and Minister Sharawan Kumar of the JD-U were present apart from Additional Chief Secretaries of various departments.

Following the development, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said that the epic battle within Mahagathbandhan has now came into public domain after a series of attacks of former minister Sudhakar Singh on the Chief Minister and 'boycott' of RJD ministers of his event. Now, RJD leaders will intensify the battle more and will end only after they make Tejashwi Yadav as Chief Minister, he claimed.

"Now, there are only two options left in the Mahagathbandhan. The first option is that RJD chief Lalu Prasad breaks the JD-U and makes Tejashwi Yadav the Chief Minister of Bihar. The second option is to send Nitish Kumar to do the politics of the Centre and hand over the charge to Tejashwi Yadav to rule the state. Tejashwi Yadav should reply why he and his ministers boycotted the Jan Jeevan Hariyali programme," Modi asked.

--IANS

ajk/vd