Sada takes oath as cabinet min, attacks Manjhi

PATNA: JD(U) MLA from Sonbarsa, Ratnesh Sada, on Friday took oath as a cabinet minister and accused former chief minister and HAM(S) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi and his son Santosh Suman of deceiving CM Nitish Kumar and doing nothing for the Mahadalit community.
He also challenged Manjhi to prove if he had done anything for the Musahar community or the dalits during his tenure as an MLA, minister or even chief minister.Sada replaced Suman as a a cabinet minister after the HAM(S) leader quit the Nitish Kumar cabinet on Tuesday alleging that the CM wanted to merge his party with JD(U).
While addressing his party members at the JD(U) office, Sada called Nitish as the biggest dalit leader. He said Manjhi and his son will have no impact on the election and added, "It has been three days since he (Suman) resigned. Did you see any unrest among the people of the Mahadalit community? No one from the community has even gone to their residence."
Sada, who also belongs to the same Musahar community as Manjhi, further said, "If a jackal puts up the skin of a lion, it will not become a lion. Though Manjhi portrayed himself as the leader of the Musahar community, in reality he did nothing for them or for the scheduled castes and tribes. He started his political journey in the 1980s and remained MLA, minister as well as CM. Tell me one big thing he did for his community. In fact, Nitish provided land to dalits and women and youths of our community could become a mukhiya, sarpanch or a zila parishad member due to the CM. Nitish had made Manjhi the CM."
Sada said he will soon start meeting people and will take up yatra from Manjhi's constituency.
Earlier, Bihar governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar administered the oath of office and secrecy to Sada in a simple ceremony at the Raj Bhavan. Nitish, his deputy Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and other cabinet ministers were present on the occasion.