BJP mounts pressure for Sahani’s resignation; points anomalies in his dept

Mounting its attack further on Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP) leader and Bihar animal husbandry and fisheries department minister Mukesh Sahani, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday again demanded his resignation on grounds of morality.

PATNA: Mounting its attack further on Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP) leader and Bihar animal husbandry and fisheries department minister Mukesh Sahani, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday again demanded his resignation on grounds of morality.

VIP leader Mukesh Sahani (HT Photo)

On Sunday, state BJP president and Paschimi Champaran MP Dr Sanjay Jaiswal joined the chorus and leveled serious allegations in the department’s working and asked him to mend his ways immediately or he will take action against him.

This development comes almost a week after all the three MLAs of the VIP joined the BJP, leaving Sahni as the lone representative in the Legislative Council. His term as an MLC ends in July.

Interacting with the media on Sunday, Jaiswal said that the minister has made huge damage to the cause of the fishermen’s society in the state.

“A delegation of Fishermen Society along with its minister came to meet me. The years-old ministerial post of Matsyajeevi Samaj was abolished and he has handed over this entire society to one officer. At the same time, on repeated inquiries of the cooperative department, they have not been able to tell till date how many are officially included in the list of traditional fishermen for the formation of fishermen co-operative society,” Jaiswal said.

“I request him to restore the posts or else I will take action against him,” said Jaiswal, who on Saturday had demanded Sahani’s resignations on grounds of morality.

Earlier, the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Thakur has accused him of exploiting the slaughterhouse operators and demanded a probe into his entire tenure as minister.

The attack on Sahani by the BJP state president comes a day after his meeting with former chief minister and HAM-S president Jitan Ram Manjhi, who earlier had backed Sahani.

Manjhi, if NDA sources are to be believed, had backed BJP’s demand and had also agreed to campaign for BJP candidate for Bochchan assembly by-polls on April 12.

On Saturday, BJP MLA Haribhushan Thakur had also demanded the resignation of Sahani saying that all the MLAs of the party he was leading have joined the BJP. Bihar Industries minister Shahnawaz Hussain also taunted Sahani and said that the UP poll results were seen by all, which answers many questions. He said that the leadership is constantly being insulted due to which all the three MLAs joined BJP.

Reacting to the allegations, Sahani said that he would reply to the charges at the right time. “The BJP president is unnecessarily tarnishing my image. It is me who has put the co-operative department, which is with the BJP, to correct the things. And they are blaming my department,” the minister said.

SPEAKER IN DELHI

Bihar assembly speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha on Sunday met senior BJP leaders. He, however, ruled out organizational or any changes.

“It was purely a personal visit and came on a courtesy call to meet minister Bhupendra Yadav. No other issues including his spat with CM were discussed,” he told media persons in New Delhi.