Patna, November 25
Even before the new NDA government in Bihar could settle down properly, the pitfalls of “turncoat politics” cost it dear on the very first day.
The NDA received a jolt just a day within Mr Nitish Kumar was sworn in when a Cabinet minister from his JD(U) party, Mr Jitan Ram Manjhi, had to resign following a controversy over his alleged involvement in a teachers’ training institution scam in the 1990s.
Mr Manjhi had shifted to the JD(U) from the RJD recently.
The JD(U) minister submitted his resignation late last night which was being forwarded to Governor Buta Singh for acceptance.
Mr Manji told the media here that he resigned voluntarily as he wanted the new government to maintain a clean image.
Before joining the JD(U), Mr Manjhi was Minister of State for Education in the Rabri Devi-led RJD government where Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav, now RJD MP, was the Education Minister.
Mr Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav is at present facing a non-bailable arrest warrant for allegedly releasing his brother and the defeated RJD candidate from Jamui, Vijay Prakash,
illegally from police custody on October 18 after he was arrested with
arms, ammunitions, huge cash and liquor bottles, at the end of the first phase of the Bihar poll.
While Mr Vijay Prakash is in jail, Mr Jai Prakash is still evading arrest.
Official
sources disclosed that going by the FIR registered by the state Vigilance Department in 1999, the “education fraud” then had involved senior officials of the National Council for Teachers’ Education, a government body formed in 1995 to grant recognition to teachers’ training institutes, senior bureaucrats and politicians, including Manjhi.
While Yadav had to resign from the then Rabri Devi ministry after a special Vigilance court issued a warrant of arrest against him in 2000, Manjhi had gone underground for some time.
Yadav had surrendered before the court but Manjhi had got anticipatory bail from the Supreme Court.
The pending case against Mr Manjhi came up yesterday during Mr Nitish Kumar’s interaction with the media when he was asked to clarify his stand for inducting a tainted minister in his Cabinet.
