Patna:

With the political temperature in Bihar rising in the election year, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Rabri Devi exchanged sharp barbs in the Legislative Council. Mr Kumar said the RJD did nothing for Bihar’s women when it was in power and jabbed Lalu Yadav, saying that he made his wife the Chief Minister before stepping down. Rabri Devi, who became Chief Minister after Lalu Yadav had to resign after an arrest warrant was issued against him in a corruption case, said Nitish Kumar claims Bihar’s women had no clothes before he took the reins of the state. “Were his family members roaming around naked then?”

The uproar began when Rabri Devi, Leader of the Opposition in the Council, said no work happened during Nitish Kumar’s tenure as Chief Minister. Mr Kumar, an estranged ally of the RJD, stood up to protest and said it was the RJD rule during which no work happened.

“Did any work happen for women? And how much have we done? They did not even educate women. Do you know how women have surged ahead? When her husband quit, he made her Chief Minister. People could not step out in the evening, now men and women are out till so late,” he said, as RJD members staged a walkout.

Addressing the media outside the House, Rabri Devi referred to Mr Kumar as “bhangri”. “He consumes bhaang and comes to the House and speaks trash about women. He insults women. He asks if women in Bihar had clothes before 2005. I want to ask Nitish Kumar, did the women of their family roam around naked? People of Bihar know what we did, for women and backward classes,” he said.

Ms Devi said some people in Mr Kumar’s party influenced and provoked him. “They teach him to say such things. He loses respect because of people in his party.”

Tejashwi Yadav, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly and Ms Devi’s son, said his mother is the state’s first women Chief Minister. “He (Nitish Kumar) can only shout at women. I hope God cures him fast,” he said.

Nitish Kumar, a key face of Janata Dal politics in the 1990s, was Mr Yadav’s brother-in-arms before the two parted ways and Nitish Kumar charted his political journey, eventually becoming Chief Minister in 2005. The arch-political rival, however, tied up in the 2015 state polls and the alliance scored a thumping win.

Two years after the election, Mr Kumar walked out of the alliance and joined hands with the BJP to return as Chief Minister. JDU and BJP fought the 2020 polls in alliance, but Mr Kumar made another flip-flop two years later and returned to the Opposition camp. In 2024, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the JDU chief made his latest switch and returned to the NDA. The BJP backed him as he took the oath for the ninth time.