‘Don’t care about those clinging to chair’: RJD leader’s veiled attack on Tejashwi Yadav

Ex-Bihar agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh said farmers did not need subsidies and freebies but remunerative prices for their produce

BHABUA: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) legislator Sudhakar Singh, who has turned into an in-house critic of the Nitish Kumar government, on Tuesday appeared to take a swipe at deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav as well. Singh, who resigned from the Bihar cabinet on Sunday, said it didn’t matter if he exited the cabinet on his own or was asked to leave but what was important was that he had to leave his post since those in the top echelons of the government were uncomfortable with his repeated calls to consult farmers before firming up a roadmap for them.

Ex-Bihar minister Sudhakar Singh has mostly stayed in his constituency in Kaimur district after exiting the Nitish Kumar cabinet and has been reaching out to farmers and tribals (File Photo)

“I do not care about the people clinging to the chair in the greed of power under the leadership of Nitish Kumar. People will give them a befitting reply”, Singh, the legislator from Ramgarh in Kaimur, told a meeting of farmers in the district’s Durgawati area on Tuesday.

People aware of the matter said Singh is unhappy at reports that he didn’t quit as farm minister on his own but was told to step down by the RJD.

Sudhakar Singh, however, underlined his loyalty to RJD founder Lalu Prasad Yadav. He said political parties may have their own commitments but my commitment is to my leader Lalu Prasad, the farmers and the poor people of Bihar. “I will not sit quietly until I get them justice. I became a minister and resigned on the directions of Lalu Prasad,” he said.

“No one can remove me from the post of MLA till 2025 and no one can stop me from raising and fighting for the issues of farmers to the best of my abilities,” Singh added.

Singh, a first-time MLA, also stressed that farmers do not need subsidies and freebies from the government but a remunerative price for their produce.

Sudhakar Singh resigned from the cabinet on Sunday after a series of attacks on the state government’s agriculture road map and corruption in the department under his charge. He was inducted into Nitish Kumar’s cabinet in August when the Janata Dal-United snapped ties with BJP and formed a new government in alliance with RJD, Congress and other parties.