Bihar: Internal bickerings in NDA come to fore

Patna, July 13: Internal bickerings within the ruling NDA in Bihar over several issues, including cabinet expansion and humiliations of the MLAs at the hands of the bureaucrats came to fore during the meeting of the legislators of the alliance here last night.

The meeting which was held at 1 Anne Marg, the official residence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar turned bitter when a senior BJP MLA Bhola Prasad Singh blamed the CM of acting like a bureaucrat.

Visibly angry with the charges, Mr Kumar threatened to quit the post making it clear that he had no lust for power and was always prepared to leave the center of power within hours.

The meeting, which was convened for chalking out strategies of the treasury benches to be adopted on the floor of the House during the current monsoon session of the state legislature, became a platform where the MLAs vent their anger over the issues disclosed an MLA of the ruling combination.

Mr Bhola Prasad Singh tried to draw the attention of the Chief Minister towards the humiliation of JD(U) MLA Purnamsi Ram who was dragged from a saloon in Bagha in West Champran district recently by the local police and kept in the custody for over 36 hours.

He said the legislators have become an object of hate and neglect during the regime of Nitish Kumar as another MLAs Renu Devi and Shashi Kumar Rai too had to face the wrath of the administration just for overtaking the vehicle of a Police Superintendent.

In the meeting Mr Singh blamed Mr Kumar for maintaining a 'mysterious silence' over such issues and alleged that the Chief Minister was doing precious little to protect the dignity of the members of the House.

Apparently perturbed with the allegations Mr Kumar made it clear that he was fully aware of his responsibilities and assured in no case he would tolerate the humiliation of the public representatives.

UNI