Bihar: RJD’s Kartik Kumar loses law ministry, made sugarcane minister

RJD sources said the party MLC's holding the law portfolio “would not give the right message with the arrest warrant pending against him” in the 2014 case.

Since Nitish Kumar expanded his cabinet inducting 31 ministers on August 16, the Opposition BJP has targeted the JD(U)-RJD government for making Kartik a minister despite the arrest warrant pending against him. (AP photo)

Bihar minister Kartik Kumar, an RJD MLC who faces allegations in connection with a 2014 kidnapping case, had his portfolio changed on Wednesday from the Law ministry to the Sugarcane Industry ministry. Shamim Ahmed, who was the Sugarcane Industry minister, has now been made the state’s Law minister.

Kumar, also known as Kartikeya Singh, is scheduled to appear before a local court on Thursday in connection with a pending arrest warrant against him in the kidnapping case.

The BJP, which lost its place in Bihar’s ruling coalition earlier in August after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) allied with the RJD again, has criticised the decision to include Kartik Kumar in an August 16 Cabinet expansion despite there being a warrant against him.

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RJD sources said Kartik Kumar holding the law department “had not been giving the right message with the arrest warrant pending against him”. An RJD leader said: “We hope he gets bail and the controversy dies down.”

BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand said: “A warrant is still pending against a minister. Removing him from the Law Department only shows that the government is trying to save its blushes.”

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