JDU MLA Ratnesh Sada Takes Oath As Bihar Minister Replacing Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Son Santosh Suman

JD(U) MLA Ratnesh Sada has taken oath as the Bihar minister days after Santosh Suman resigned from the state cabinet citing 'threat' to existence of his party.

Janta Dal (United) MLA from Bihar's Sonbarsha, Ratnesh Sada, on Friday, took oath as the minister in the state cabinet days after Jitan Ram Manjhi's son Santosh Suman resigned. The oath-taking ceremony was held at Raj Bhavan. Apart from Sada, some leaders from Congress and RJD also the oath as ministers as part of a cabinet expansion by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, ahead of the opposition parties' meet on June 23.

The cabinet expansion has been due for long after JD(U) snapped its ties with BJP to form Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) government in August 2022. Earlier, there were 30 ministers in the Bihar Cabinet following the resignation of Suman. Based on the total strength of the Assembly, there can be a maximum of 36 ministers.

The RJD has 16 ministers, JD(U) has 11 and Congress two in the Cabinet. There is also one independent member.

The Sonbarsha MLA has accused the father-son duo of HAM of having ditched Nitish Kumar because of their "insatiable greed and vaulting ambition".

Sada has also charged Manjhi with "paying lip service to Dalits, especially Musahars despite being a minister in several governments since 1980s besides a brief tenure as the CM", PTI reported.

It is being speculated that by elevating Sada, who hails from the populous north Bihar, Nitish Kumar is looking to neutralise the damage Manjhi could inflict, especially if he returned to the BJP-led NDA ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Suman resigned on Tuesday alleging "pressure" from the JD(U) to merge Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) with the ruling party. Sada belongs to the Musahar community. The three-time legislator from JD(U) is associated with Kabirpanthi. 

He said that the existence of his party was in danger and that is why he resigned as the cabinet minister of the Bihar government. Manjhi said that he still considers CM Nitish Kumar as the leader in the Mahagathbandhan, but there were talks on the merger of the party to which he had no choice. He claimed that his decision was not 'unilateral' and it was decided after talking to everyone in the party.

"In Mahagathbandhan, we considered Nitish Kumar as our leader and we still consider him one. But for the past few days, a proposal for a merger of the party was being put before us...This is not a unilateral decision by me. This was decided after meeting with and talking to everyone..," said Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Santosh Kumar Suman.

He said, "...the existence of my party was under threat, I did this to protect it...", he added.

Responding to opposition parties' meet on June 23, he said, "When we were not even invited, when we were not even recognised as a party, how would we have been invited?" he says when asked if his party will attend the Opposition party meeting later this month and joining hands with any other party, he said, "We are not having any such conversation with anyone as of now. We are an independent party, we will think about protecting our existence. I am not thinking this right now, I still want to be a part of Mahagathbandhan."