Bihar Election: Jitan Ram Manjhi has targeted Chirag Paswan with questions over the death of his father.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's ally Jitan Ram Manjhi has targeted Chirag Paswan with questions over the death of his father, taking the issue to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Ram Vilas Paswan, who died on October 8 after a long illness, was a minister in PM Modi's cabinet.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Manjhi called for a judicial investigation into Paswan Senior's death and questioned the conduct of Chirag Paswan, citing a video clip that showed him preparing to record a speech standing next to Ram Vilas Paswan's photo.
So far, the opposition parties have targeted him over it, drawing furious reactions from the 37-year-old leader. But with Mr Paswan pitting himself firmly against Nitish Kumar in the ongoing state elections, the BJP allies have also joined in and Jitan Ram Manjhi has escalated the issue.
"The nation is in shock due to Ram Vilas Paswan's death but LJP chief Chirag Paswan was seen smiling during shooting videos the day after the last rites. He was talking about the shooting, due to which several questions are being raised by some section of Ram Vilas's admirers and relatives," read the letter according to news agency ANI.
"On whose directions, the hospital where Ram Vilas Paswan was admitted, did not release medical bulletins? On whose directions, only three people were allowed to meet Ram Vilas Paswan at the hospital?" it said.
Chirag Paswan has responded with a question of his own.
"Why didn't he (Jitan Ram Manjhi) show so much concern about him (Ram Vilas Paswan) when he was hospitalised? Everyone is playing politics over a dead person now, why no one bothered to visit him when he was alive?" Paswan Junior was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
"I have told Manjhi-Ji about my father's serious condition over phone, yet he never came to see my ailing father," said the leader, who has accused Nitish Kumar of lack of concern on this issue.
Mr Paswan also accused Nitish Kumar of "scripting a plot to settle political scores with him" and instigating the HAM to rake up an emotional issue to blunt the LJP's campaign. "Those who're talking such things about a son should be ashamed of themselves," he added.
To opposition parties' remarks that he was "not sad enough" while talking about his father, Chirag Paswan had said that he doesn't need to prove his grief to anyone.
He had also hit out at the Chief Minister saying he never expected the Janata Dal (United) chief to stoop so low.