Bihar agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh resigned from chief minister Nitish Kumar’s cabinet on Sunday.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader had publicly alleged deep-rooted corruption in his department, raised questions on the prevalent work culture, lack of facilities for farmers, and had gone to the extent of asking the people to thrash the corrupt officials with shoes.

He had also termed the Bihar agriculture road map, considered a brainchild of Nitish, a “failure” because it had not increased food grain production in the state.

Though Sudhakar, an MLA from Ramgarh in Kaimur constituency, could not be reached despite several attempts, his father Jagadanand Singh, RJD Bihar unit chief and a close aide of party president Lalu Prasad, confirmed the resignation.

“Bihar’s agriculture minister has sent his resignation to the government on this auspicious day (of Durga Puja) because we do not want the fight to go ahead unnecessarily. The roles of jawan (soldier) and kisan (farmer) cannot be neglected. The minister has resigned in the interest of

the farmers, labourers and the villagers of the state, so that the government can continue functioning smoothly,” Jagadanand told reporters.

“There is a need to sacrifice for the farmers. He (Sudhakar) was forcefully and vociferously raising issues related to them and the mandi (markets for agriculture produce). He was a symbol of the farmers. He was following the path shown by Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri, who believed that the country couldn’t stay aloof from the plight of farmers. But if you tread on this path, you also have to sacrifice yourself,” Jagadanand said about his son.

Sudhakar’s open criticism had led to a run-in with Nitish at a cabinet meeting around a month ago. The latter had asked him to tender an explanation, but he refused to do so, asserted that the comments were correct, and walked out from the meeting.

Nitish had to dial RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who assured him that he would look into it. However, there was no letup in the minister’s demeanour and he stayed on warpath, vowing either to reform his department or perish.

Jagadanand’s statements made it amply clear that his son was forced to resign for the sake of the Grand Alliance government, which took over the reins of the state on August 11 after Nitish quit the NDA and shook hands with the RJD.

Sudhakar is an accused in a paddy scam that occurred in the state around 10 years ago, when rice-millers did not return the required quantity of rice to the government after milling the paddy supplied to them.

Sudhakar’s native district Kaimur is a part of the “rice bowl” of the state consisting of districts in west and southwest Bihar. He owned two rice mills at that time.