Bihar Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar recently administered the oath to newly inducted Minister Ratnesh Sada in the cabinet led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The ceremony was held at Raj Bhavan, with various officials and ministers in attendance.
Sada is a seasoned leader from the Dalit community and was elected three consecutive times to the Bihar Legislative Assembly from the Sonbarsa constituency since 2010. Chief Minister Kumar decided to induct Sada into the cabinet after Santosh Manjhi resigned as Minister following differences between his party JD(U) and HAM. Chief Minister Kumar had offered HAM to merge with JD(U), which was not acceptable to HAM supremo Jeetan Ram Manjhi, former Chief Minister of Bihar.
Following his resignation, Santosh Manjhi alleged that pressure was being mounted on HAM to merge with JD(U), which was an attempt to finish the existence of HAM and could not be accepted at all.
Notably, the Grand Alliance comprises six parties, namely JD(U), RJD, Congress, CPI, CPI(M), and HAM. While HAM has not formally declared its exit from the Grand Alliance, JD(U) President Rajeev Ranjan Singh (also known as Lalan Singh) said on Tuesday that, in his opinion, HAM was out of the Grand Alliance.
In summary, the recent induction of Ratnesh Sada into the Bihar cabinet follows the resignation of Santosh Manjhi after differences between JD(U) and HAM. It remains to be seen how this development will impact the political landscape of Bihar.
