Hours after Union Home Minister Home Minister Amit Shah accused Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of "backstabbing" the BJP to join the RJD and cautioned people about the return of 'jungle raj', Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Friday dubbed his speech as a "comedy show".
The RJD leader also alleged that Shah visited Bihar with the intention to "vitiate" the atmosphere.
"He was neither talking like a country's home minister nor a politician. His entire speech was a comedy show. He didn't mention anything about inflation and unemployment. Earlier, too, I had said that that he would mostly talk about meaningless things,” Yadav stated in reply to questions by journalists over Shah's speech during the day.
Addressing a BJP rally in Purnea, the Union home minister flayed former ally Nitish Kumar, accusing the Bihar chief minister of ‘backstabbing’ the BJP and trying to fulfil prime ministerial ambitions while “sitting in the laps of Congress and RJD”.
Shah also asserted that the "jodi" of Kumar and RJD president Lalu Prasad will be "wiped out" ("soopda saaf') in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and, a year later, the BJP will win a majority on its own in the assembly elections. He warned that "the danger of jungle-raj" looms over Bihar.
Taking exception to the home minister's remarks, the RJD leader maintained, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said in a rally in Purnea in 2014 that special attention would be given to Bihar, but he (Amit Shah) made no mention of that or talked about inflation or unemployment."
"Shah is fooling the people of Bihar. He came to Seemanchal to vitiate the environment and create bitterness among communities," Yadav claimed.
The deputy CM sought to remind the Union minister that the rate of crime in the national capital "was much higher" than that of Bihar.
“On what basis does he (Shah) keep talking about jungle raj? The rate of crime in Delhi is much higher than that of Bihar. And law and order of Delhi is a central government subject. He must go through the data of the National Crime Record Bureau before commenting on Bihar," the RJD leader added.
READ | ‘PayCM’ poster row in Karnataka: Congress leaders detained after protests, CM Bommai responds to allegations