Lagatar24 Desk
Patna, March 28: Mukesh Sahni, a Bihar minister and the leader of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), has been removed from Nitish Kumar’s Cabinet, according to a notification from the Cabinet secretariat. This comes a day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar requested that Governor Phagu Chauhan remove Sahni from the Cabinet at the request of the BJP, which was enraged after the VIP chief ran against the party in 53 seats in Uttar Pradesh.
Mukesh Sahni, the state’s minister of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, is no longer a member of the Council of Ministers, with the Governor’s consent. Mukesh Sahani had previously stated that he would not resign from his cabinet ministership on his own, and that the chief minister would make the final choice.
Following the notification issued by Bihar Governor, Mukesh Sahani is no longer the state cabinet minister: Government of Bihar pic.twitter.com/KbVBrzsa2I
— ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2022
Notably in Bihar, the VIP, a BJP partner, was given 11 seats from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) quota to contest the state election in 2020. Four of the 11 seats were won by the party. Three of Sahni’s MLAs switched to the BJP earlier this week, leaving Sahni as the Vikassheel Insaan party’s single representative in the Upper House of the Assembly. Bihar’s legislature is divided into two chambers.
Sahni, who upset the BJP with his candidates in the UP election, went head-to-head with the saffron party again in the upcoming Bihar MLC elections, fielding seven candidates against the BJP. A clearly enraged BJP demanded that Sahani be removed from the Bihar government by its NDA ally JD(U). Despite his party, the JD(U), obtaining only 43 seats in the 2020 Bihar elections, the BJP, which won 74 seats, backed Nitish Kumar for chief minister.
Earlier, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar recommended the Governor on Sunday to remove Mukesh Sahani after receiving a written complaint from the BJP.
