Bettiah/Patna:
This once, a controversial Jitan Ram Manjhi comment has attracted a serious allegation. The opposition BJP has accused the Bihar chief minister of "stoking caste tension" in the state with his remark that "upper caste people are foreigners."
Mr Manjhi, who has made an assortment of controversial public statements with alarming regularity since he took over as chief minister in May, was speaking at a function in Bettiah when he delivered his new controversy.
"The upper caste people are foreigners and descendants of the Aryan race...they have come here from foreign countries. Only tribals and Dalits are indigenous people," said the chief minister, who is belongs to the community of Maha-dalits.
The Chief Minister's speech was aimed at exhorting his audience to educate themselves and become politically aware to ensure that they can play a pivotal role in government formation in Bihar, which votes for a new assembly next year.
The BJP's Sushil Modi has accused Mr Manjhi of "trying to sow a wedge between different sections of society by questioning the ethnicity of the upper caste people, which may stoke caste tension in Bihar."
The BJP leader alleged that Mr Manjhi's gaffe was not the first instance when he had tried "to divide the people on social grounds."
The controversies scripted by the 72-year chief minister have embarrassed his party, the Janata Dal United, whose Nitish Kumar had chosen Mr Manjhi as his successor after he stepped down as chief minister in May, owning responsibility for his party being washed out in the national elections. Critics have accused Mr Kumar of picking Mr Manjhi because he wanted a "rubber stamp"; Mr Manjhi has vowed to prove them wrong.
He has most often attempted to deny or retract his startling statements, even though they are on camera. In the past the chief minister has said he supports bribery, has endorsed corruption and black marketing and has said that his married son cannot be faulted for having a girlfriend, though the alleged companion also turned out to be married and an employee of the Bihar government.
Last week, he said he knows he is "chief minister only for a few days."