IANS | 11 Feb, 2024
A day ahead of the crucial floor test of Nitish Kumar government, a
meeting of JD-U MLAs was held at the residence of Finance Minister Vijay
Kumar Choudhary on Sunday but 4 lawmakers were not present. However,
another Minister said that they were in touch with all four and they
would be reaching here in time for the vote.
The meeting started at 5 p.m. and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was also present.
Sources
have said that of the missing four MLAs, three - Bima Bharti, Sudarshan
Kumar, and Dilip Rai - had their phones switched off or out of network
coverage area, while Dr Sanjiv Kumar, who represents Parbatta in
Khagaria district, was in Goa but is expected to reach Patna by Monday.
On
Saturday, a lunch party was held at the residence of Rural Development
Minister Shrawan Kumar here where these MLAs as well as Shalini Mishra
were not present.
However, Mishra, who went to Delhi a few days
ago, had returned to Patna and was present in the Sunday meeting. "We
are with Nitish Kumar and we will win the vote of trust," she said.
Cabinet
minister Sumit Singh, who is an Independent, said that the "missing"
lawmakers will reach Patna for the floor test on Monday.
"We have
contacted them and they are on the way to Patna. There will be no
'Khela' (gamke) in Bihar. We are the players (Khiladi) and we will do
the Khela," he said.
Asked about the phones of three MLAs being
switched off, Singh said that the party leaders have contacted them on
their alternate numbers and they had promised to come to Patna.
During
the 2020 Assembly election as well as during the formation of
Mahagathbandhan government, Bima Bharti had openly objected to Lesi
Singh being made minister.
On the other hand, Sudarshan Kumar was
not pleased with senior party leader Ashok Chaudhary, considered close
to Nitish Kumar, and had blamed him for interfering in his constituency.
Rai was in the RJD before the 2020 Assembly election and joined the
JD-U in the run-up to it.
