Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar lost his composure inside the state assembly on Tuesday when opposition members created a ruckus, alleging that his government was ruling the state with the help of “guns and bullets”.
The 76-year-old leader, who stood up to admonish the unruly members, also had a slip of tongue, as he underscored the brute majority enjoyed by the NDA, saying “our strength is two thousand and two”.
The BJP-led coalition, which includes Kumar’s JD(U) and a few smaller parties, had swept the Bihar assembly polls last year, bagging 202 seats of the 243-strong House.
Several other MLAs of the opposition party rose in their seats and shouted the slogan “bandook goli ki sarkar nahin chalegi (will not allow a rule by brute force, with the help of guns and bullets).”
This provoked Kumar, the longest serving CM of the state, who heads the JD(U) and has had a couple of short-lived alliances with the RJD in the recent past.
The 76-year-old leader said, “Do not talk rubbish. This government will run without any hiccups. Just look at how many of you have been left now.”
He was apparently referring to the RJD’s drubbing in the last assembly polls when it returned with a tally of 25 in the 243-strong House.
Kumar also reminded the opposition party, which was unseated from power by the NDA helmed by him in 2005, that “You people did nothing worthwhile during the period you were in power.”
“Law and order had been so abysmal that people feared getting out of their homes after 5 pm. So you better not talk nonsense,” the CM said.
Amid the heated exchange, some of the opposition MLAs trooped into the well, briefly plunging the House into turmoil.
The agitated members got pacified after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary rose to interject and said, “We will call representatives of various associations of chowkidars for talks. Their demands will be looked into, and appropriate action will be taken.”
