Bihar BJP minister's remarks rekindles spat
Patna: Friction between NDA alliance partners in Bihar on Monday resurfaced after a BJP minister's remarks on coalition governments.
Panchayati Raj Minister Samrat Chaudhary said that running a coalition government in Bihar is extremely tough.
"Despite having 74 seats, we have given the post of Chief Minister to a leader of a party having only 43 seats to follow the coalition pact.
"Bihar has a coalition government of four parties and each of them have different ideologies. In this case, running a government is not an easy task," Chaudhary said while addressing his party members in Aurangabad district. Keeping this in view, BJP supporters should maintain patience, he added.
Noting that the BJP has governments in many states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh etc, he said that running a government there is very easy, but execution of work in states like Bihar is extremely tough, as even officials are not listening to the ministers.
Reacting to Chaudhary's statement, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asked him to specify who is not listening.
"If he (Chaudhary) is having any issue, why don't he talk to leaders of his own party," he said after his Janata Darbar on Monday.
"We have been running a coalition government for many years in Bihar and there is no such issue. The coalition is running smoothly between all alliance partners," he added.