Nitish,Sushil Modi pay respect to former CM Jagannath Mishra

The body of three-time former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra who passed away in the national capital on Monday was brought here on Tuesday and taken to the premises of the bicameral legislature where Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and others paid respect to him.

Besides Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Deputy Chairman of the legislative council Haroon Rashid and several members of the state cabinet were among those who turned up to pay their tributes to Mishra, who had been a member of both Houses in his long political career.

The body was also taken to Sadaqat Ashram, headquarters of the state Congress with which Mishra had been associated for long before he snapped ties with the party. A large number of Congressmen paid floral tributes to him there.

The body of the 82-year-old leader, whose youngest son Nitish Mishra is a state vice president of the BJP, was subsequently taken to his ancestral village Balua Bazaar in Supaul district for cremation with full state honours.

Meanwhile, senior RJD leader Shivanand Tiwary Tuesday questioned the decision of Nitish Kumar government to announce a three-day state mourning following the death of Mishra, pointing out that the late leader had been convicted in the fodder scam alongside Lalu Prasad.

In a statement issued here, the RJD national vice president took a jibe at Kumar for having ended alliance with the party over allegations of corruption against Prasad and his family but ignoring the fact that Mishra has been sentenced in as many as three fodder scam cases.

Has not Nitish Kumar, who professes to have zero tolerance for crime, corruption and communalism, ended up glorifying corruption by announcing state mourning for a man convicted in a graft case, Tiwary who was formerly with Kumars JD(U) asked.

Jagannath Mishra has been convicted in the fodder scam just like Lalu Prasad. In two of the cases he has been awarded prison sentences for five years while in another he has been sentenced to three and a half years in jail, Tiwary said.