Health minister dodges CM darbar

The presence of ministers in the chief minister Nitish Kumar’s janata darbar is mandatory on the day complaints and petitions of their department concerned are invited. But health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey “dared” to play truant in the past few janata darbars of Nitish. Health department principal secretary Amarjit Sinha attended the darbars instead.It is amazing how Choubey can ignore the chief minister’s janata darbar when one among us earned the wrath of Nitish for trying to leave the venue early,” a minister said. There is speculation over why Choubey was not turning up Nitish’s janata darbar. “Choubey’s relationship with the chief minister is far from comfortable. His rapport with his department’s principal secretary cannot be called warm either. One fails to understand if Choubey cannot sit with the chief minister or he does not want to be seen with his principal secretary,” the minister said.

Rivalry in alliance

The RJD and the LJP may be allies when it comes to contesting polls, but there appears to be intense rivalry between them over playing the role of the Opposition. Whenever an incident happens in Bihar, there is a race between the two to send “fact-finding teams” to the spot of occurrence. In the past three months, the two parties sent separate teams to Forbesganj, Biharsharif and Aurangabad. “When pointed out that their ally had already released the report of their fact-finding team, the other party claims that their report is more credible,” an NDA leader said. “If Laluji and Paswanji can hold joint rallies and public meetings during elections why cannot both of them instruct their leaders in Bihar to send joint fact-finding teams?” a JD(U) leader asked.

Party money in pocket

The recent meeting of a political party outside Patna left political circles speculating over the “donations” collected for it. The collection was reported to be much more than what was actually handed over to the party for arranging the show. “Before every mega event organised by the political parties, everyone is tapped for funds. Businessmen, contractors, doctors and even officers contribute for such events to keep the political parties in good humour. If the event is organised by the ruling party, the money donated is more,” a senior politician said. He recalled that political parties gave receipts for donations till the 1970s. “But that practice appears to have vanished. The people raising funds for the parties end up pocketing more money than what they give to the party’s coffers,” he added.

Billboard shadow on statues

Huge billboards and cut-outs of an internationally reputed firm set to open a gymnasium in Patna at roundabouts having statues of personalities like the late socialist leader B.P. Mandal have not gone down well with senior politicians. “Earlier, firms used to have a sanctity. They avoided installing billboards on the premises having statues of icons. But that appears to have gone. In the present time, one can expect advertisements of multinational companies stuck on the statues of our icons,” an octogenarian leader said.