Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar late on Sunday night recommended to the Governor the removal of Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani from his Cabinet. Mr. Sahani is the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Minister in National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Mr. Kumar in Bihar.
The CM is said to have made the recommendation after receiving a written complaint from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a partner in the ruling alliance. Mr. Sahani might be removed from the Cabinet any time.
Recently, all three VIP MLAs joined the BJP after Mr. Sahani raised a banner of revolt against that party. Mr. Sahani, though, has said that he would not bow down to the BJP even after all his party MLAs joined it. “ Jhukega nahi (I’ll not bow down),” Mr. Sahani had said.
Mr. Sahani had pitted 57 candidates in the recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections against the BJP though his party couldn’t win a single seat there. Later, he put up his party’s candidate against the BJP in the Bochaha Assembly poll in Muzaffarpur district, scheduled to take place on April 12.
Mr. Sahani is an MLC whose term will expire in July this year, and it appears likely that his term will not be renewed.
Meanwhile, some hectic political developments have been taking place in Bihar ever since Mr. Kumar returned from the swearing-in ceremony of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Mr. Kumar is said to have met the BJP president J. P. Nadda and some other top party leaders in U.P.
Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha is currently in Delhi, meeting with top BJP leaders, and State BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal has met with the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi in Patna.
The buzz in the State’s political circles is that there could be reshuffle in Mr. Kumar’s Cabinet soon, with the induction of some new faces.
