JD(U) MLA Shyam Bahadur Singh and (above) rural works development minister Bhim Singh. Telegraph pictures

Patna, Aug. 23: A JD(U) legislator has decided to sue a minister of his party for allegedly not paying heed to a personal request, posing threat to the unity of the ruling party.

Barhariya MLA Shyam Bahadur Singh has decided to take this extreme step against rural works minister Bhim Singh after the latter allegedly refused to transfer one of his ailing relatives and humiliated him.

Claiming that all transfers in his department were made following rules, the minister said he was ready to face the case.

“All the transfers in the department are done in accordance with rules. As far as the case is concerned, I am ready to face it,” Singh said.

With both the minister and the legislator ready to face each other in the court, the JD(U) office-bearers are alarmed.

“We would look into the issue and try to resolve it at the party level itself so that the matter does not go to the court,” the JD(U) state unit president, Basishtha Narayan Singh, told The Telegraph. He added that the party would talk to the minister and the MLA to sort out the issue.

But as of now, Shyam is determined to sue Singh. “I will file a defamation case against the minister as he misbehaved with me when I went to meet him for transferring one of my relatives to a desired place as he was suffering from cancer. Singh misbehaved and did not pay heed to my request. My relative, who died on August 16, was forced to spend his last few days away from his family at the place of his posting,” Shyam Bahadur today told The Telegraph.

Shyam said his relative, R.B. Singh, was posted as a junior engineer in the rural works department at Biharsharif. He had requested Singh to transfer him to Chhapra, where his family lives.

“I decided to take up his case as I knew that my relative was suffering from cancer and doctors had told us that he would not remain alive for more than two months,” the JD(U) MLA said.

Shyam said he got the shock of his life when the minister told him that MLAs were in the habit of citing health reasons for getting their kin transferred at desired places. “I told the minister that I could bring my relative to his residence so that he could see him himself. But the minister refused.”

Shyam said he had raised this issue in the recently held meeting of the JD(U) legislative party in front of chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Defamation case apart, the family members of the junior engineer are planning to move the state human rights commission on the issue. “At present they are in a state of shock but very soon a petition in this regard would be filed in the commission,” said the Barhariya MLA.