Bihar Agriculture Minister Sudhakar Singh resigns

Patna, Oct 2 (IANS) Bihar Agriculture Minister Sudhakar Singh resigned from the government on Sunday.

Jagadanand Singh, the father of Sudhakar Singh and RJD state president, confirmed the development.

"Sudhakar Singh has sent the resignation to deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, who is also a leader of the party legislators in Bihar Assembly. Now, it is up to Tejashwi Yadav to send his resignation to the higher authorities," the RJD state president said.

Jagadanand Singh also said that Sudhakar Singh has started a big fight in the interest of farmers of the state which needed sacrifice. Sources said that Tejashwi Yadav reportedly applied pressure on Sudhakar Singh to resign to please Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

"Sudhakar Singh resigned in the interest of farmers. In the past, the farmers of the country had made a movement for the Bazar Samiti (Mandi). In Bihar, the law pertaining to Bazar Samiti was finished in 2006. Sudhakar Singh was demanding to implement Mandi law in Bihar so that farmers will get direct benefit. Only by raising the need to implement Mandi law cannot help. Sometimes, it needs sacrifice. He has sent the resignation to Tejashwi Yadav in the interest of farmers, labourers and poor people of the state as we do not want the fight to intensify within the government," Singh said.

Sudhakar Singh earlier pointed out corruption in the agriculture department. He publically said that the corruption was taking place from lower to the higher level officers. "All of them are thieves," he had said.

Following the statement, the Chief Minister became furious during a cabinet meeting last week and raised objections to his statement. He wanted Sudhakar Singh to withdraw the statement which he denied and instead left the meeting. Singh also said that he rightly pointed out the corruption issue within the government, and remained steadfast in his statement.

Nitish Kumar on the other hand claimed that there was no corruption issue in the state government. "If anyone does the corruption, he/she will go to jail," Kumar earlier said.