PATNA: NDA partner RLSP on Tuesday targeted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the rise in crime in the state after an RLSP leader was shot dead in Vaishali district.
After visiting the family of the slain leader, RLSP chief and Union minister Upendra Kushwaha said there now seemed to be “an absence of law and order system” in Bihar. “How do so many murders take place in Bihar in broad daylight? Where is the rule of law?” asked Kushwaha, who had said last month he does not want Nitish Kumar to be projected as NDA’s next CM candidate for the Assembly polls in Bihar due in 2020.
Manish Sahni, a block head of RLSP in Vaishali district, was gunned down by two bike-borne assailants immediately after he came out of the BDO’s office at Jandaha on Monday. Sahni received three bullets and lay there bleeding profusely. He was rushed to a nearby hospital but he died on the way.
A fierce public protest that followed the murder led police to open fire on the protesters. One man was killed and seven others were injured in the police firing.
“Nitish Kumar is the head of the state government. Who else should I aim my complaints at? It is shocking that the killers got away though the police station is just a few hundred metres away from the BDO’s office,” said Kushwaha, who had criticised the Bihar government over the issue on Twitter on Monday.
The RLSP chief denied that he was engaging in politics over a murder. “I am extremely sad at the loss of a fellow party man, and I demand that the killers be arrested immediately,” he said.
RLSP national general secretary and spokesperson Madhaw Anand said: “The Bihar government and the administration have become completely passive and insensitive. The incidents in Bihar are an intense example of the government’s absence”.
CM Nitish Kumar, when asked by reporters about the murder and RLSP’s criticism, merely said: “A probe is on”. JD(U) national general secretary KC Tyagi said: “Nobody agrees with Kushwaha’s assessment of the law and order situation in Bihar. It is driven by political rivalry and jealousy”.
Meanwhile, an undersecretary of Bihar’s planning department was shot dead by criminals during a robbery bid at his residence in Patna on Tuesday, raising more questions over the law and order situation in Bihar.