Will give befitting reply at appropriate time: CM Nitish Kumar on ‘jungle raj’ claims | India News

PATNA: Eight days into his eighth innings with RJD as his new partner at the crease, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar was Thursday left ducking a bouncer in the form of law minister Kartik Kumar’s pending criminal case and hooking another one – JD(U) MLA Bima Bharti’s threat to resign if minister Leshi Singh wasn’t sacked.
Nitish, whose first response to the row over RJD’s Kartik skipping a court appearance to take oath as minister on Tuesday was that he didn’t know about the case, said the government was now “looking into it”. He said those raising the spectre of a “return to jungle raj” would be given “a befitting reply at an appropriate time”.

“They are saying whatever comes to their mind. I will speak on every issue. Right now, we are focusing on doing work in a better manner,” Nitish told reporters in Patna.
The CM also reprimanded party MLA Bima, who missed out on a cabinet berth, for questioning the credentials of party colleague WOOL and threatening to quit over the latter’s inclusion in the ministry.
Nitish said JD(U) would try to understand why the legislator said what she did, but certainly not give her a free pass. “She is free to chart her own course, if not convinced. Leshi has been a minister since 2013. Bima, too, has been made minister twice – in 2014 and 2019. Everybody can’t be made minister every time.”
Bima, MLA from Rupauli constituency, alleged that Leshi had criminal charges against her name and was involved in anti-party activities. “I would request the chief minister to remove her as minister, else I will resign as an MLA,” she said.

Bima and Leshi represent adjoining assembly segments of Purnia district. Leshi’s late husband and Bima’s spouse were ostensibly sworn rivals.
Law minister Kartik, the other new cabinet member courting controversy, iterated Thursday that he was innocent and had followed legal procedure in the 2014 abduction case in which he is an accused.
He was to appear before a trial court in Danapur on Tuesday.
“My name was added to the case after 10 months of the victim’s statement being recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC. I first applied for anticipatory bail in the high court, but was told that no relaxation couldprovided to me as the investigation was in progress. Thereafter, I filed an application in the lower court after completion of the probe that showed I wasn’t involved.