Murder accused on Dal event dais

The presence of murder and extortion accused Pintu Singh on the stage at a JD(U) programme at SK Memorial Hall to pay tributes to the legendary freedom fighter, Veer Kuer Singh, created a stir within the party. ingh, allegedly involved in several cases of serious crimes, including murder and extortion, presented a bouquet to senior JD(U) leader and former Union minister Harikishore Singh. “He is at present out on bail,” said a JD(U) leader, insisting that there was nothing wrong in his presence. But another section of the JD(U) leaders pointed out that it would have been a disaster had Pintu been snapped with chief minister Nitish Kumar. “We have the likes of Anant Singh and Sunil Pandey. But they are at least our MLAs,” said a JD(U) MP. Last year, there was a murmur in the party over a senior JD(U) leader using the catering services of a notorious criminal in his daughter’s marriage. Criminals rubbing shoulders with politicians in public were common in the RJD regime. “Now they appear to be making a comeback under the Nitish regime,” said a seasoned politician.

Parliamentarian count puzzle

Agriculture minister Narendra Singh appeared confused over the number of MPs in Parliament at a public meeting. He said there were 540 MPs in the Lok Sabha but fumbled on the number of lawmakers in the Rajya Sabha. “It’s 200,” he said after a while and asked the state JD(U) chief and a Rajya Sabha MP, Basistha Narayan Singh, how many lawmakers were there in the Rajya Sabha. The JD(U) state chief said 250. “Narendra has not been in good health. He was hospitalised recently. It is natural for him to forget the numbers. But he is short-tempered and does not want to be reminded that he should now leave politics to his two MLA sons,” said a JD(U) leader.

Back to bureaucrat

Speculation is rife over replacing the chairman-cum-managing director of Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Limited, P.K. Rai, with an IAS officer. “The chief minister’s public statement that he would not ask for votes in 2015 if he cannot improve the power situation in Bihar is haunting him. Rai is too much of a gentleman to enforce the work fast. The chief minister thinks a senior IAS officer would be able to do the work more efficiently,” said a senior official, stressing that bureaucrats appear to be scoring a victory over technocrats.

Probe for truth

The excise minister, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, has ordered the Sasaram district magistrate to conduct a probe into the alleged assault of the BJP MLA, Jawahar Prasad, because of claims and counter-claims. The MLA alleged that some excise officials roughed him up when he opposed the opening of a liquor shop at a particular area. Excise officials in Patna, however, claimed that the MLA had gone to the shop for donation for a yagna he was organising. There was no physical violence and only a heated exchange of words had taken place, an excise official aid. “Only a probe will reveal the truth,” the excise minister said.