Independent MLAmoves Speaker

Independent MLA from Dehri-on-Sone Rashmi Jyoti, given marching orders in the House twice this session, has won some ghost supporters for staging dharna outside Speaker Uday Narain Choudhary’s office for the release of her husband booked for illegal mining in Rohtas. The woman has managed to get on the nerves of Choudhary. We used to think that nothing moves him,” said an MLA, adding that the number of people who hates Choudhary in the Assembly is quite large. Another MLA recalled that Choudhary had remained unmoved when an RJD MLA allegedly threw a slipper at him during his first tenure as Speaker. “Rashmi appears to have irritated him by just sitting in the Well of the House,” said an RJD MLA gleefully.

No to quota

Patna divisional commissioner K.P. Ramaiah is often flooded with requests for admission of children to the central schools in the capital. Ramaiah, who has a quota of four seats in the three central schools in the city, appears to have developed the art of saying “no” indirectly. He usually claims that he recommends only Mahadalit children for admission to the central schools. “Having quota in schools is always a ticklish issue. Earlier, MPs used to have a quota of four seats in the central schools. A former Patna MP used to sign recommendations of a few hundred because he could not afford to displease his voters. Before the bifurcation of Bihar, the state government had a quota of four seats in BIT, Mesra. The institute authorities used to receive at least 200 recommendations from a former chief minister. Officials of BIT, Mesra, used to wait for all his recommendations and then one person was sent with the recommendations to the chief minister. The chief minister then selected the ‘lucky’ four,” said a politician.

On song, not really

The organisers of a function hosted during Holi requested the chairman of the Legislative Council, Tarakant Jha, to sing a song in Maithili. But Jha said: “I am a lawyer and at present, I am the chairman of the Legislative Council. I hold a constitutional post, which does not allow me to sing on a stage.” The Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, present at the function also excused himself politely. “I have stopped singing ever since I had a love marriage,” he told the audience. A spectator at the venue said: “Politicians are never short of excuses.”

LJP card puzzle

Nobody appears to be interested in what the LJP chief, Ram Vilas Paswan, and his party is doing. According to sources, the LJP is keeping itself busy by issuing identity cards to its supporters. Even office-bearers are being given identity cards. None of them has any clue on how the identity cards will help the party’s revival in the state. “With the clout of the party so low, I don’t think showing my I-card will have any impact on anyone,” said an office-bearer, adding that the only good news for the party in the past seven years had been the victory in an Assembly seat in Manipur. “Perhaps the I-card will be more helpful in Manipur than Bihar,” he added.