Nitish Kumar Is Finished, Says Lalu Yadav After Bihar Violence: 10 Facts

Lalu Yadav made the statement against Nitish Kumar when he was in Delhi for treatment.

Highlights

Lalu Yadav blamed Nitish Kumar for giving leaders of BJP a free hand
Communal tension began in Bhagalpur on March 17 and spread to 9 districts
His remarks came before 2 BJP leaders were named for inciting violence

Patna: Nitish Kumar, the Bihar Chief Minister who has been fending off the opposition charge that his government had gone soft on miscreants behind communal violence in the state, came under a fresh round of attacks. This one was led by the jailed Rashtriya Janata Party chief Lalu Yadav who reached Delhi for treatment on Thursday. "Nitish Kumar is now finished," Lalu Yadav declared, blaming Mr Kumar for giving leaders of his new partner, the BJP, a free hand. Communal tension that started from Bhagalpur on March 17 had spread to nine more districts in 11 days.

Here are the 10 facts to the big story:

"There are riots and incidents of violence all over Bihar," Mr Yadav told reporters, blaming BJP leaders for the violence.
Lalu Yadav's remarks came hours before the police named two local BJP leaders for inciting communal violence in Samastipur's Rosera. Two persons arrested for the communal disturbance in Aurangabad a few days earlier, Anil Singh and Avnish Singh, are also said to be BJP leaders.
The alleged involvement of BJP leaders in violence across three districts appears to have embarrassed the two ruling parties, the BJP and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United. Bihar's BJP president Nityanand Rai brushed aside talk of a pattern. "It is the RJD which is creating misinformation," Mr Rai said.
The first spark was lit in Bihar's communally sensitive locality of Bhagalpur where Arijit Shashwat, son of Union Minister Ashwini Choubey, was accused of leading a procession without permission of the district administration. Provocative slogans were raised during the procession streamed live on Facebook, and violence followed.
The police blamed the minister's son and got warrants from the court for his arrest after an uproar in the assembly. But the police was seen to be less than enthusiastic about putting Arijit Shashwat behind bars. The minister's son, supported by his father, continued to throw the gauntlet at the state government and refused to surrender.
Sources said the Nitish Kumar government complained to the BJP leadership about Arijit Shashwat but has been reportedly told to first let the minister's son try to get bail.
Aurangabad was next to see minor clashes on Sunday. The situation got out of hand the next day when local BJP lawmaker Sushil Singh insisted on taking out the Ram Navami procession. The opposition says Mr Singh, who had promised "retaliation" if the procession was stopped, had delivered on his word.
And there was no stopping the violence that reached districts of Munger and Rosera on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Nitish Kumar's home district of Nalanda also got into the list of districts that saw communal disturbances.
The opposition RJD has alleged police inaction in the first few minutes and hours of the disturbances across the state, incidents that have severely dented Nitish Kumar's reputation as an administrator with a firm grip on the law and order situation.
Switching into damage-control mode, Nitish Kumar's party said the Chief Minister would never compromise on the law and order front. "He is firm when it comes to sushasna (good governance) and for this, we are willing to pay any price," Shyam Rajak, JD (U) general secretary said.