'Gentle reminder' for Nitish Kumar

Deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav's remark that a Bihari would be the next Prime Minister - made rather out of context during the speech on his department's budgetary demand - is being discussed in political circles.

A group of JDU leaders, who had raised the chorus of "Nitish as prime ministerial candidate" immediately after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly results, grew suspicious. "What Tejashwi must actually have meant was that Nitish Kumar should move to Delhi so that he can take over Bihar," said a JDU legislator, recalling that there had recently been a chorus among RJD leaders to make Tejashwi the chief minister while the deputy chief minister had himself declared that his chacha (uncle) Nitish Kumar will stay. "This is Tejashwi's clever way of again repeating the demand of making himself the chief minister," said another JDU leader. "Of course, Nitish will not oblige him so soon."

Campaign vitamin

Senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav has suddenly become active in the Assembly, prompting Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary to remark that Nand Kishore had become energised after returning from "somewhere". "Everybody knows where I was. It's natural to feel enthusiastic," the BJP MLA. Nand Kishore was among the few Bihar BJP leaders to be called to Uttar Pradesh to help the party campaign. He spent 40 days in Lucknow. "Nand Kishore ji has reasons to be happy other than the massive win of the BJP," said a BJP legislator. "He was called while his rival in the party, Sushil Kumar Modi, was not."

Query shield

Health minister Tej Pratap Yadav finally decided to take questions concerning his department inside the Assembly after being at the receiving end for being absent whenever a question was related to his department. He read out the answers prepared by his officials but let Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary and a few ministers take over whenever an MLA asked supplementary questions. In a couple of cases, the Speaker did not even bother to ask for supplementary questions and moved on to the next question.

A legislator pointed out that he was not being allowed to ask supplementary questions. "Sometimes, the answer is so good that there is no scope for supplementary questions," the Speaker retorted. An old-timer recalled: "Shielding a person from questions is an old art. Rabri Devi was chief minister for around seven years. Her ministers took questions on her behalf."