SAKRA/MAHUA/MAHNAR/KANTI: Campaigning in Kanti, Muzaffarpur district, on Monday, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar lost his temper when a group of people raised slogans against him.
A slipper was also flung towards him by some protestors while he was going towards his helicopter after completing speech at an election meeting in Sakra in Muzaffarpur district, but it missed the target.
Police took four persons in custody on the charge of creating disturbances at the chief minister's rally, police sources said.
The Sakra incident is in the series of protests Kumar is facing during his rallies in different parts of the state.
“Apne maa se poocho RJD ke 15 saal mein kya hua (Go ask your mother about the 15 year of RJD rule),” he barked quite uncharacteristically.
Addressing rallies in Sakra and Mahua, Kumar hit out at the RJD for making "fake" promises during polls to "cheat" the people.
Kumar has been deriding opposition chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav's promise of providing 10 lakh jobs if voted to power.
There was a similar reaction at Parsa in Saran district on October 21.
Kumar then he moved to neighbouring Vaishali district where he spoke at public meetings in Mahua and Mahnar assembly seats.
Mahua constituency is in the news because Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav, who represented it in the outgoing assembly, has relinquished it and moved to Hasanpur constituency in Samastipur district.
Mahnar too is in the media headlines because it includes the native place of veteran socialist leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who had quit RJD before his death last month.
His son Satya Prakash Singh has joined JD(U) headed by Nitish Kumar.
"Some leaders are making lofty promises before polls to cheat people, they have no genuine interest in work, whereas we have translated all our promises into reality," Kumar said taking a swipe at Lalu Prasad's headed party while speaking at Mahua.
A group of locals, said to be supporters of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, began shouting “Lalu zindabad” slogans even as Nitish was speaking.
“Kahe halla kar rahe ho? Kya bol rahe ho? (Why are you making noise and creating a nuisance? What are you talking about?” he said angrily, adding: “Apne baap aur maa se jungle raj ke bare mein me poohcho (Go and ask your father and mother about the jungle raj),” he retorted.
Nitish was campaigning for Chandrika Rai, the father-in-law of Lalu Prasad’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav. Tej Pratap and his wife Aishwarya Rai have fallen out following a marital dispute.
The jeering enraged Nitish so much that he turned more hostile towards Lalu’s family, wanting to know how a well-educated woman like Aishwarya could be ill-treated.
Political observers and even his critics are surprised at his behaviour as he is widely known to be politically correct, not easily ruffled and tempered in his utterances.
In the 2015 election campaign, when the Bharatiya Janata Party and Nitish’s party were opponents, the Bihar CM maintained a level of decency even after he was personally attacked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I was hurt when he withdrew his support. But when he did the same thing to a Mahadalit such as Jitan Manjhi, then I figured out there is something wrong in his political DNA,” Modi had said of Nitish after the Bihar CM and Manjhi had parted ways.
“Nitish did not lose his cool in 2015 but this time he gets irritated when Chirag Paswan and Tejashwi Yadav attack him,” a source said.
Taking a swipe at Nitish, Tejashwi tweeted that the CM had become “exhausted and stale in his politics. He avoids speaking about real issues and facts.”
“It shows his frustration. His popularity is declining and power is slipping away from his hands,” RJD spokesperson Mritunjay Tiwari said.
But Janata Dal-United leaders defended the CM and said the party would get a full mandate. He dislikes “indiscipline and any kind of hoogalism,” a leader close to Nitish said.
Kumar also said while the RJD cared for one family (of Prasad) and some caste and community but our successive governments have worked for promoting interests of all caste and creed.
Like in the earlier rallies, Kumar reeled out data to underscore developmental records of the RJD during its 15-year rule and that of the NDA ministries for an equal duration after 2005.
"For some family means wife, sons and daughters for me Bihar is the family for whom we work tirelessly," the chief minister said, taking a jibe at his bete noire RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.
He highlighted development work done in the last five years by executing "saat nishchay" (seven resolves) of good governance and promised to carry forward the work by implementing seond part of the seven resolves which will include providing irrigation to every farm land.
Accompanied by state minister Sanjay Kumar Jha, the chief minister reminded people of the "jungle raj" prevailing in the state during the RJD regime when crime was rampant and asserted how his government ended it and established "rule of law.
While Tejashwi has gone to town over the rising unemployment in the state, repeatedly criticizing the Bihar CM over the issue, Chirag has singled out Nitish in his attacks, alleging corruption for which he has vowed to jail the JD-U leader.
“Be it the CM himself or officials, whoever is found to be involved in corruption will be sent to jail after the LJP-supported BJP government is formed in the state,” he said.
(With PTI Inputs)