Even as the Bihar Vigilance Investigation Bureau finally registered a case against senior Congress leader and former Assembly Speaker Sadanand Singh for alleged irregularities in the recruitment of Assembly Secretariat employees, there is little response from the Congress party in his defence.
But Mr Singh, currently one of four Congress MLAs in Bihar, created minor ripples in Bihar’s political circles by claiming that the vigilance case was lodged against him a day after he refused the ruling JD(U)’s offer to join it in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Mr Singh’s claims of political motivation behind the case have apparently no takers in the Congress in Bihar, reportedly due to the intense factionalism still gripping it.
The Vigilance Investigation Bureau on Tuesday lodged a case against Mr Singh and 41 others, including 11 officials, for alleged irregularities in the appointment of lower-grade clerks and some other cadres in the Assembly Secretariat during Mr Singh’s tenure as Assembly Speaker between 2000 and 2005, when Bihar had the RJD-led government. Mr Singh, who is the leader of the Congress Legislative Party, said: “This case is entirely motivated by politics because it was lodged hours after my refusal of the JD(U)’s offer. Some JD(U) leaders had met me at 7.30 PM on Monday with the offer of a party ticket for the Lok Sabha from Bhagalpur and an Assembly ticket for my son from Bhagalpur.”
The nine-term Congress legislator insisted there was no case against him after the verdict of a single bench of the Patna high court that was “in my favour and had rejected the arguments of the vigilance bureau”.
He said there was no case of corruption as “no bribes were received”.
According to the vigilance department officials, rampant nepotism was at play in the whole appointment process as the written examinations and interviews were selectively manipulated. “Sons and daughters of several influential people were simply distributed jobs in the Assembly secretariat,” said an official.