New Delhi: Ex-law minister of Delhi and advocate Somnath Bharti, Thursday, wrote to both Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding “audit” and “vigilance” into usage of development and discretionary funds by Union Minister & Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi and his party’s leaders.
Somnath Bharti’s representations came four days after Manjhi, at a party event in Bihar’s Gaya, publicly stated that every MP/MLA took commissions from development funds, such as the Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme.
“Shri Manjhi publicly stated that: ‘Every MP and MLA takes commission’, and further elaborated upon percentage-based commission from development funds, portraying such conduct as routine and acceptable,” Bharti complained in his letter.
“Either it amounts to a public admission of systematic corruption in the utilisation of public funds, or it constitutes reckless and false generalisation, gravely defaming constitutional institutions and honest legislators,” he said.
The BJP has distanced itself from Manjhi’s remarks, with BJP leader and minister Dilip Kumar Jaiswal calling it “personal opinion”.
‘Instruments for financial extraction’
Bharti, in his letters, also expressed concerns over Manjhi’s son, HAM(S) leader Santosh Suman, being inducted as a Bihar minister despite not having won an assembly election, cautioning of grave constitutional implications.
Currently, Suman is the Minister for Minor Water Resources of Bihar.
The Aam Aadmi Party leader wrote that “public advocacy of commission-taking”—read with the fact that Manjhi is serving as the Union Minister (Central Government) for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME)—created a “legitimate apprehension” that development funds and executive offices might be perceived as “instruments for financial extraction, unless addressed through visible institutional safeguards”.
His letters were not just to accuse, Bharti further wrote, calling his caution “preventive” and aimed at ensuring transparency, without alleging guilt.
Manjhi has sparked several controversies with his Gaya statements in which he also expressed displeasure over not being allocated a Rajya Sabha seat, as the NDA purportedly promised him after the 2024 elections. He also demanded an RS seat after the Bihar by-polls scheduled for April 2026.
He said, “We are not an ordinary party in Purnia, Magadh, and Munger divisions. We also have supporters in West Champaran. Our party is strong everywhere, but the BJP has underestimated us in every election. Whatever has happened so far is fine. If we are not given importance in the next election, we will go our own way.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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