Differences within Grand Alliance out in the open after Shahabuddin release

Strains within the Grand Secular Alliance government in Bihar have started to come out in the open.

Strains within the Grand Secular Alliance government in Bihar have started to come out in the open.

Mohammad Shahabuddin greeted by supporters after he was released on bail. (PTI)

Former RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin drew first blood by saying that JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar was a ‘chief minister of circumstance’.

RJD vice-president and former Union minister Raghubansh Prasad Singh on Sunday backed Shahabuddin’s comments by saying, “What is wrong in it? Nitish Kumar has indeed been a chief minister of circumstances and not because of his own strength and numbers.”

While Kumar on the same day trashed these comments by terming it as ‘unimportant’, his ministers Bijendra Prasad Yadav and Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lallan appealed to RJD president Lalu Prasad to rein in leaders like Raghubansh Prasad Singh who are regularly making irresponsible remarks.

State energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav told reporters,“Raghubansh Prasad Singh is making uncharitable remarks, laced with filth against the government and the chief minister, even more than the opposition, BJP. His comments are not dignified and guided by personal grudge.”

Lallan also lashed out at senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi for “regularly making statements” against the state government in the wake of Shahabuddin’s release from jail after he was granted bail by the Patna high court.

“Sushil Modi is trying to create an environment of fear among the citizens of Bihar,” he alleged.