RJD slams BJP Bihar mantri Shahnawaz Hussain's alleged casteist remark on home allocation

In a shocking development, RJD MLA Prahlad Yadav on Saturday, shared a video alleging BJP minister Shahnawaz Hussain's disdain at being allocated a house near an SC community. The video shared by Yadav and Plurals party, shows Hussain talking to someone on his phone claiming that he was allotted a house where 'Doms and pigs' were there nearby - referring to SC community in Patna. Both parties have lamented Hussain's high-handed 'elite' attitude. Hussain is the lone Muslim BJP minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet.

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BJP min's shocking casteist remark

Comparing Hussain's remark to Lalu Yadav's attitude, RJD claimed that the ex-Bihar CM had made Raj Bala - a Dalit the DM of Patna, while today's governing leaders were referring to them as 'Doms and pigs'. Meanwhile, the Plurals party stated that while Hussain was 'para dropped from Delhi' as Bihar's industries minister, his attitude was anti-poor. Hussain, who was recently nominated to the Bihar Legislative Council, has been sworn in as Bihar's Industries minister in the recent cabinet expansion.

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Nitish Kumar gets expanded cabinet

On 9 February,  17 more Ministers- 9 from BJP and 8 from JD(U) were inducted in the Bihar Cabinet at the Raj Bhavan in Patna in the presence of CM Nitish Kumar. As part of the latest Cabinet expansion, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, Nitin Nabin, Pramod Kumar, late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's cousin Neeraj Kumar Singh Bablu, Samrat Choudhary, Janak Ram, Alok Ranjan Jha, Subhash Singh and Narayan Prasad have been inducted from the BJP's quota. A former MP, Janak Ram is not a member of any House of the Bihar Legislature as of now. On the other hand, the new JD(U) Ministers include Sanjay Jha, Shravan Kumar,  Leshi Singh, Jayant Raj, Jama Khan, Sumit Singh, Sunil Kumar and Madan Sahni. During Nitish Kumar's swearing-in,  only 13 other Ministers were sworn in with him including Deputy Chief Ministers Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi, Bihar JD(U) president Ashok Choudhary, BJP MLC Mangal Pandey, HAM(S) supremo's son Santosh Kumar Suman and VIP chief Mukesh Sahani.

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JD(U)'s reduced clout

Banking on Nitish's 15-year consecutive term, the NDA had flaunted his '7 promises', listing the various schemes and development work carried out by his government in the past tenures during the poll campaign. Faced with anti-incumbency, the NDA managed to eke out a majority winning 125 seats, compared to Mahagathbandhan's 110 seats with BJP emerging with an edge over the JDU. Nitish's stature was reduced as his party won only 43 seats - down from 71 in 2015, while BJP bettered its tally winning 74 seats. BJP further asserted its dominance, by shifting Nitish's preferred deputy - Sushil Modi to the Rajya Sabha and installing two deputy CMs - 4-time MLAs Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi instead.

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