PATNA: A war of words has broken out between the BJP and the RJD over the number of people in Sunday's state-wide human chain, that the opposition party has termed as "super flop".
The Congress, meanwhile, took exception to party MLC Ramchandra Bharti for taking part in human chain organised by the state government to send a message against the practices of dowry and child marriage.
"After going through the reports of various editions of different newspapers, it can easily be said that it was super-flop," RJD vice-president Shivanand Tiwary said.
The number of participants in this human chain was not even one-fourth of the one organised last year in support of liquor ban when the RJD shared power with JD(U), he claimed.
He dared the state government to make public photos of the human chain clicked with the help of 40 drones.
No official version has come out so far on the number of people in yesterday's human chain. The state government had last year claimed that over four crore people took part in the human chain held on January 21, 2017.
Tiwary also demanded the state government come out with a white paper on the expenditure incurred on the human chain and the Vikas Samiksha Yatra and what were the achievements of the two programmes.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi countered the RJD and said the human chain was 16 per cent longer than the one formed last year.
"The success (of yesterday's event), which shone in bright sunlight, is a sight that those belonging to the lantern era cannot behold," Modi said.
Lantern is the election symbol of the RJD.
"Most child marriages in the country take place in Bihar and the state is next only to Uttar Pradesh when it comes to dowry deaths....The chief minister's call against these social evils got a spontaneous response," Modi tweeted.
Meanwhile, Congress acting president Kaukab Qadri said though party MLC Ramchandra Bharti was seen joining the human chain alongside JD(U) state president Bashishth Narain Singh here, no disciplinary action would be taken against him.
Bharti claimed he took part in the programme as it was organised for a good cause, Qadri said.
"We are issuing him a warning that legislators must refrain from acts which embarrass the party," he said.
Former BPCC president and leader of the rebel faction in the party's state unit, Ashok Choudhary, however, came out in support of Bharti.
"There were no instructions from the party restraining members from joining the human chain. Hence no party discipline has been violated (by Bharti)," said Choudhary, a former minister, who himself stayed away from the human chain.
Without naming Bharti, Sushil said "Those in the Bihar Congress whose wisdom has not been destroyed by the evil company of Lalu Prasad, either took part in the human chain or extended moral support to it."