PATNA: Even as three men were arrested on Saturday for firing at the house of an RJD legislator in Bihar’s Begusarai district, RJD and Congress hit out at the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government, saying it has failed to maintain law and order in the state.
RJD, Bihar’s main Opposition party with the largest number of MLAs in the Assembly, termed the attack on Bakhri MLA Upendra Paswan’s house as part of an effort to break the party’s morale. Congress said it was time Chief Minister Nitish Kumar stopped keeping the home department with him.
Two bike-borne criminals had fired indiscriminately at Paswan’s house late on Friday evening when he was sitting in a meeting with a group of supporters outside his house. Paswan had a narrow escape, but two people were injured. Begusarai SP Aditya Kumar said on Saturday that three men, including two who had carried out the firing, were arrested.
“The daring of robbers, killers and criminals is now at an all-time high in Bihar because the CM is running a government formed by robbing of the people’s mandate,” said Leader of Opposition Tejaswi Yadav of RJD.
RJD state president Ram Chandra Purve led a five-member delegation that submitted a memorandum to state DGP PK Thakur and demanded that sufficient security arrangements be made for Yadav’s statewide tour beginning from February 9.
Citing the murder threats issued earlier to RJD MLAs Ejya Yadav of Mohuddinagar and Mohammad Faisal Rehman of Dhaka, Purve said the crime graph in Bihar has seen an “unprecedented rise” and that police have failed to contain the worsening situation.
“The status-quoist elements are frustrated to see the rising popularity and public acceptance of Tejaswi Yadav. There is a conspiracy to target our leaders and workers due to our party’s rising support base,” wrote Purve in the memorandum.
Senior Congress leader Prem Chandra Mishra said: “CM Nitish Kumar has kept the home department with him all along, but he has failed to provide a secure life to ordinary people and their representatives. He should now hand over the department to a separate minister”.
The ruling JD(U) rejected the demand. “Whenever a criminal incident attacks, the perpetrators are swiftly arrested and brought to justice. The people of Bihar are still terrified when they remember the jungle raj prevailing during RJD’s 15-year rule,” said JD(U) MLC and spokesperson Sanjay Singh.