JD(U) suspends from party seven ministers in Jitan Manjhi cabinet
Manjhi is now said to be surviving with the support of only one MLA and minister Vinay Bihari
Patna: Perturbed Jitan Ram Manjhi, on Tuesday after returning from New Delhi faced another setback when the JD(U) terminated the membership of seven ministers of his cabinet. JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav a week ago had written to these ministers seeking their resignation from the Manjhi cabinet.
The sacked JD(U) ministers included CM Manjhi’s close aide Narendra Singh, Nitish Mishra, Bhim Singh, Samrat Choudhary, Mahachandra Singh, Shahid Ali Khan and Brishen Patel. The chief minister is now said to be surviving with the support of only one MLA and minister Vinay Bihari who is an independent .The chief minister later cancelled his entire scheduled program and met with the legislatures at his residence to draw strategies for the upcoming trust vote.
Amid political crisis a dinner party was organized by pro-Nitish camp leaders in Patna, the sources said that in order to further appease the legislatures Nitish Kumar asked one his supporter’s to throw a party in a five star hotel.
“No the dinner was not organized to appease anyone, no one needs to appease us as they know that we were together earlier and we are together now, it just happened that on the occasion of Maha Shivratri we decided to have dinner together”, member of Legislative council and the main organizer of the dinner party Vinod Singh said.
In Bihar’s political circles, the dinner get-together is being seen as yet another attempt to demonstrate the strength of Nitish Kumar ahead of trust vote on 20 February. The BJP while taking a dig at the dinner diplomacy said that such parties were being organized to keep MLAs under strict vigil.
“Nitish Kumar is organizing such parties and get-together in order keep a check on the legislatures. The same Nitish Kumar used to keep himself away from the MLAs and ministers when he was the chief minister and today he needs them he is wooing them in. He is scared that he may lose”, leader of opposition Nand Kishore Yadav said.
The BJP when asked about their decision to support the chief minister, said that they were yet to decide anything over the issue.
“We are still closely watching the situation and have informed the same to our central leaders. We are meeting on 18 February where we will discuss this with our legislatures and then we will decide at the last minute whether to support him or not”, BJP senior leader Sushil Kumar Modi said.