Former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi on Monday accused her successor Nitish Kumar of failing to maintain law and order and requested him to transfer the gavel to his son Nishant. She was reacting to a question by the media outside the state legislative council, where she is the opposition leader. "Law and order situation is especially dismal in Bihar," said the RJD chief, referring to the recent crime spurt.
She also stated, "Nitish Kumar is the chief minister and he also has the Home portfolio. Still, this is the condition. It would be better if he transfers the mantle to his son."
Questioned if she was calling for the resignation of the biggest currently serving CM, who is most probably going to contest re-election in around a couple of months from now, Rabri Devi responded, "I am not concerned about little things such as whether he should resign first. But he should allow his son to come out. He is young and will perform better.".
The comments made by the wife of Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad, the chief minister's arch-nemesis, were interpreted as a bid to fish in troubled waters of the Janata Dal(United), which is led by him.
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A day before, former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, who had resigned from the JD(U) over two years ago alleging Kumar had done a "deal" with the RJD for merger, put out a social media message, calling upon the former mentor to relinquish the party leadership keeping the chief minister's position.
Similar to Rabri Devi, Kushwaha also claimed that Nishant, whose possible entry into politics continues to be a mystery, embodied "new hope", while emphasising that he was talking about the party and not the government.
On Monday, Kushwaha addressed the media and reiterated that he had only "expressed the feelings of thousands of JD(U) workers" with whom he remained in contact.
On the other hand, Rabri Devi's statements invited a vitriolic reaction from JD(U), as also their partner BJP, who has, so far, insisted that 75-year-old Kumar will continue to be the "face" of NDA in the upcoming assembly elections.
Senior BJP leader and Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha stated, "We don't want to exchange blows with a lady. But her party would do well to seriously think about dumping her husband as the RJD national president, even though he is a convict." Prasad, to whom Rabri Devi had taken over as the Bihar chief minister after he was charge-sheeted by the CBI, has been convicted in several fodder scam cases.
JD(U) spokesperson and MLC Neeraj Kumar said, "Rather than talking of Nitish Kumar's son, Rabri Devi should be concerned about her own son Tej Pratap Yadav".
Yadav was dismissed from the party by Prasad some weeks ago after the elder son posted on social media that he was "in a relationship" with a woman other than his wife, even when the divorce case was still pending in the court.
Yadav has since been asserting that the seeds of distrust were planted between him and his younger brother Tejashwi, the heir apparent of their father, by vested interests.
He has also indicated that he would like to fight the coming assembly elections, although it is not known whether he was expecting a pardon from his father or whether he was contemplating contesting the polls as an Independent.
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