After BJP’s demand, Nitish sacks VIP chief Mukesh Sahani from Bihar Cabinet
Nitish, it is learnt, recommended that the governor’s office terminate the services of the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Minister after he received a letter by BJP to this effect.
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Vikassheel Insaan Party chief Mukesh Sahani addresses party office bearers, workers and general public at the residence of former minister Ramai Ram (Twitter @sonofmallah)Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Sunday sacked Mukesh Sahani, a Cabinet minister and founding chief of Vikassheel Insaan Party.
Nitish, it is learnt, recommended that the governor’s office terminate the services of the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Minister after he received a letter by BJP to this effect.
The state Information and Public Relations Department confirmed it on its official WhatsApp group: “After BJP made the request for Mukesh Sahani’s termination as minister, the CM has recommended it to the Raj Bhavan. BJP said in its letter to CM that ‘since Sahani is no longer part of NDA, he should be removed as minister’.”
Last week, all three MLAs from VIP had joined the BJP, making it the single largest party in the Assembly.
Before this, the EBC Mallah leader, who is said to have some standing among the fishing community, had said that his move to switch from the RJD-led grand alliance to the NDA camp ahead of the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls was a “mistake”.
In the 2020 Bihar polls, the BJP had allotted 11 seats to the VIP from its NDA quota. The VIP contested from these seats and won four. The three VIP MLAs owed their allegiance to the BJP unofficially from the beginning.
On Sunday, before the sacking, Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal alleged that Sahani had caused major damage to the fishing community by tampering with the organisational structure of the Prakhand Matsyajivi Sahyog Samiti, a registered society, through an order earlier this month.
The order looks to give more powers to bureaucrats rather than a 13-member block-level body of fishermen. The new order also provides for a system of making online members of fishermen who elect the block level cooperative committee. But the new order does not define who are” fishermen”.
BJP state chief Jaiswal, who paraded several members of the cooperative society at the party office, alleged that Sahani, as minister, removed posts of ministers in the cooperative committee and formed an executive body, which has been under the control of a bureaucrat.
Lalan Sahani, state convenor of the BJP’s fisheries cell, added: “Sahani has sought to tell us who are registered fishermen. He has to clarify who can become members of the cooperative committee. The cooperative department has taken the matter seriously”.
Sahani has been sacked despite the possibility of adverse reactions from the EBC Nishad/ Mallah community ahead of the MLC polls next month.
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