The BJP slammed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for indulging in 'loose talks' and asserted that security measures for the serial blasts-marred 'Hunkar Rally' at Patna last month was his responsibility in his capacity as the home minister of Bihar.
"Instead of indulging in loose talks about our senior leaders, Kumar should be candid in accepting his government's failure to provide adequate security measures for our 'Hunkar Rally' which was rocked by serial blasts claiming six lives at the Gandhi Maidan," the state unit BJP president Mangal Pandey told reporters.
"The senior JD-U leader should be mindful of the fact that he happens to be not only the chief minister of Bihar, but also holds the home portfolio and so the responsibility for any law and order problem, including the Patna serial blasts, rests squarely at his doors," he said.
There was not one, but two intelligence inputs about the looming terror threat to the BJP's Patna rally, but the chief minister took these inputs as routine matter and did not review security for the rally at his level, the state unit BJP president said.
By downplaying the security threat to the BJP rally, Kumar put the lives of lakhs of people attending the rally in peril and regrettably six of them died in the serial blasts, he said.
Claiming that that there was a groundswell of public anger against the JD-U government and the chief minister, in particular, for letting the serial blasts take place, Pandey said that the BJP was only articulating the angst of the people against their government and not trying to take political mileage out of the incident.
"The people of Bihar are angry with the JD-U) for betraying their mandate in 2010 assembly polls for the NDA as reward for good governance and improved law and order situation, but the Chief Minister has abdicated his duties and pushed Bihar to a law and order situation which was worse than the days of jungle raj", he said.
Pandey also announced a slew of political programmes at the district and block level to woo the electorate in the run up to the next general elections.
Meanwhile, the state unit JD-U) general secretary Venkatesh Kumar Sharma alias 'WG' joined the BJP with hundreds of supporters at a function held at the party office.
