The Bihar Legislative Assembly today witnessed a verbal spat between a state minister and the Congress Legislature Party leader, much to the delight of the opposition BJP, which pointed to acrimony between members of the ruling grand secular alliance.
The embarrassing situation for the alliance happened during Question Hour in the Assembly between state Energy Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav and Congress Legislature Party leader Sadanand Singh.
Singh, a ninth term Congress MLA from Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur district, joined the issue with BJP member Sanjay Sarawgi, who had raised a question about absence of chowkidars in gram kachahris (village courts).
The BJP member supported by Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar alleged that despite a state government order, chowkidars were yet to be made available to many village courts.
Thereafter, Bijendra Prasad Yadav intervened in support of Panchayati Raj department minister Kapildeo Kamat and asked members to furnish specific names of panchayats on which the government would act.
The Congress LP leader said it was true that majority of panchayats didn't have chowkidars.
Yadav then asked Singh why was he intervening in a question of another member.
On this Sadanand Singh retorted he would not sit idle if some wrong was happening in the state.
Singh and Yadav came face-to-face for the second time when the former intervened on a question of fellow party legislator Samir Kumar Mahaseth on defective hand pumps in a village in Madhubani district.
To Minor Irrigation department minister Tej Pratap Yadav's assertion that he would look into the complaint, Sadanand Singh sought for alternative arrangements, on which minister Bijendra Yadav again asked the Congress leader as to why he was intervening in other's issues.
The Congress LP leader quipped he would point out if something was wrong in the state government.
Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar and BJP MLAs Binod Kumar Singh and Vijay Sinha were heard pointing towards acrimony among the ruling coalition members.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was not present in the House
at the time when the two ruling coalition members engaged in the spat.
JD(U), RJD and Congress constitute the grand secular alliance in Bihar, which has a strength of 178 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar House.
Sadanand Singh, a veteran Congress leader of the state and former minister, did not find place in the grand secular alliance ministry and was named as Congress Legislature Party leader by party vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
