Line of discomfort for darbar officials
The one thing that officials on duty at the chief minister’s janata darbar loathe the most is the telephone set kept on their respective desks. Chief minister Nitish Kumar has ensured that he remains connected with his officials present at the darbar. arlier, Nitish used to send the complainant to the concerned official’s desk after scribbling notes on their petition. “That system allowed us to take breaks as the petitioner would wait until we returned to our tables. Now, leaving the desk unattended is risky. You never know when the chief minister will give a call on the desk and find us absent,” said an official. The BJP organised a two-day training programme for its MLAs in Bodhgaya. Out of the 91 BJP legislators in the current Assembly, as many as 32 are first-timers. “The training camp was basically meant for the first-timers. Despite the Assembly having a long budget session this year, only three of the 32 new MLAs dared to speak in the House. The rest remained mute spectators,” said a senior party leader. However, quite a few of these first-timers have strong political backgrounds like Vivek Thakur, son of former Union minister C.P. Thakur and Manju Hazari, daughter-in-law of veteran politician Ram Sewak Hazari. Many senior politicians claim that the training camp for MLAs may look good on paper but practically serves no purpose. “There are legislators who have been in the House for years but have not uttered even 10 lines on issues till date. On the other hand, there are legislators who have been very vocal in the House but lost the polls,” said a senior politician, insisting that being a good MLA and a good politician are two different things. . The Patna Municipal Corporation sees no-trust motions being moved against the mayor regularly. There is a move to dislodge present mayor Afzal Imam too. The employees of the corporation are hardly surprised. “One should see the gold chains worn by the councillors — both male and female. The chains are so thick that you can fasten a cow with them,” muttered an employee, stressing that too much funds was being pumped into the wards. The stakes are so high that everybody wants to have a major share. The councillors have adopted the Aya Ram Gaya Ram (practice of frequent defections) policy. Earlier, mayors found support from councillors vanishing into thin air at meetings where important plans were passed. MLAs and MPs feel that there should be an anti-defection law for civic bodies too, to ensure longer tenure for mayors. BJP workers point out that deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi is frequently losing his temper at public places. “Modiji gets infuriated, especially when food is distributed when he is speaking at a function or when petitions are given to him at public places,” said a BJP leader. Lalu rasad was another leader who used to let out his anger at public places and did not even spare his leaders at public meetings. Lalu made sure he entire crowd was istening when he rebuked his leaders. “Modiji has not reached that level so far and it is unlikely that he will ever reach the level of mass support that Laluji had,” said another BJP leader.
Monday, 09 February 2026
