NEW DELHI: Citing a string of incidents of crime, including the recent murder of a youth by a ruling JD(U) leader's son, BJP today demanded Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's resignation on moral grounds.
On a day the JD(U) chief launched his party's campaign in Uttar Pradesh from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi, BJP took a swipe at him using his claims on prohibition to say that lawmakers of the ruling alliance were "drunk on power".
Referring to the murder of a youth by Rocky Yadav, son of a JD(U) MLC in Bihar, BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav also targeted the state's Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, who had hit back at the party over its 'jungle raaj' charge.
"Kumar is unable to rein in his party MLAs, how he will be able to control law and order in the state... First, he should tender his resignation on moral grounds," Yadav told a press conference as he referred to a number of incidents of crime, including rape and murder, involving leaders of JD(U) and its ally RJD.
Senior state leaders of BJP and its ally LJP were also murdered in the last few months and accused remain at large, he said.
"Those who are talking about prohibition are drunk on power," Yadav, who is also BJP's Bihar in-charge, said, claiming governance in the state under Kumar had been ineffective.
Taking a dig at Congress, party's national secretary Shrikant Sharma told the media that its vice president Rahul Gandhi had not said a word about the youth's murder but does not leave any chance to visit a BJP-ruled state whenever such incidents occur.
Yadav also advised Tejeswi Yadav, son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, to refrain from making "childish statements" and asked him to empathise with parents of the victim.
When asked about Kumar's national ambitions and his address to party workers in UP today, Yadav shot back saying he should first take care of Bihar.
Sharma also defended Modi's comments at an election meeting in Kerala where he had compared the state to Somalia, saying the Prime Minister had done so in the context of child mortality rate of a particular tribe in a region of the state.
"Modi said the child mortality rate in the tribe is very high. The situation is more dangerous than Somalia," he said, accusing opposition parties of distorting his comments for scoring political points.