Name game in state schemes

group of Opposition members recently suggested that the state government should start a chief minister’s mosquito killing scheme, after counting the number of programmes in the name of the chief minister. “There are a dozen schemes named after the chief minister. Not even the Prime Minister has so many schemes named after him,” said an RJD MLA. He added: “Perhaps they (the government) should start a Chief Minister Machchar Maro Yojana.” JD(U) leader was quick to point out that the state government named schemes after the chief minister and not Nitish Kumar. “No name of any person is included in any scheme. But the Centre names most of its schemes after members of the Nehru-Gandhi family,” he remarked.

Mr Prime Minister?

t recent meeting of JD(U) legislators at the chief minister’s official residence, 1 Aney Marg, an elder MLC and former minister declared: “Nobody can stop Nitish Kumar from becoming the Prime Minister. The allies (read BJP) will not like my words but even they cannot stop Nitish.” A bemused party colleague later said: “The speech made us wish that we had made it.” At the meeting, MPs and MLAs were also asked to prepare for the general elections in 2014. Nitish, though, has never projected himself as a Prime Minister. He has also joked that the two candidates for the top post from the state (Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan) were finding it difficult to keep their seats. “But he does not mind his followers projecting him as a Prime Minister candidate,” said the JD(U) legislator.

Too few to say cheese

JP MLA Vikram Kuer had to recently jostle with RJD legislators to get into Assembly. The Opposition members were staging a protest at the House entrance. An irked Kuer told the protesters: “Your work is done. All the journalists have taken your photographs.” The BJP legislator is no stranger to his RJD counterparts — he was a member of Lalu’s party before switching sides. His directive concealed the jibe that protests staged at the Assembly entrance were for the benefit of photojournalists, who are not allowed into the House. An RJD member had a curious comment to make about the practice: “In the last ssembly there were Communists as well as quite a few LJP and Congress members. Now, it’s only us who sufficient numbers to make our presence felt at the gate.”ot enough lung powerhe Opposition in the Assembly has a serious shortage of lung power. “This is a long session and there is a lot of time slotted for debates. How can we manage to get speakers to cover the time allotted to us?” mourned a senior RJD leader to a Congress MLA. He complained that there were not even half-a-dozen MLAs who could speak in a debate. “There are a few, like Bhai Birendar, who know how to pitch their voices. But even he cannot continue for 15 minutes,” he said. The RJD is obviously missing some of its members from the last Assembly.