Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday launched a tirade against former CM and HAM leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, saying that it was “stupid” of him to appoint the latter to the post. Nitish was speaking in the Bihar Assembly a day after he apologised for his remarks on population control while discussing the caste survey report tabled in the House a day earlier.

“Inko kuch idea hai? Ye toh meri galti hai jo is aadmi ko humnein bana diya mukhya mantri. Koi sense nahi hai iska. Aise hi bolte rehta hai. Koi matlab nahi hai (Does he know anything? It is my mistake that I made him Chief Minister. He makes no sense. He keeps saying meaningless things),” Nitish said, referring to Manjhi who was appointed as the Chief Minister after Nitish stepped down from the post following Janata Dal (United)’s dismal performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Also Read: PM Modi attacks Nitish Kumar over population control remarks

The CM’s outburst came during Manjhi’s address in the Bihar Assembly during a discussion on the Bihar Reservation Amendment Bill. The legislation, aimed to raise the quota for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Classes and Extremely Backward Classes from the existing 50% to 65% was cleared by the Assembly without any hiccups.

Reiterating that it was “stupid” of him to have appointed Manjhi as CM, Nitish said that he wanted Manjhi to remain with the BJP after he ended his alliance with the NDA back in 2013. “I started getting complaints within two months of appointing him as the chief minister. But he came with us (in 2023). I sent him to you (BJP). Even his relatives are not with him,” the JD(U) president said.

Also Read: Bihar Assembly unanimously clears Bill to raise reservations for SC, ST and OBCs from 50% to 65%

Manjhi was met with a terse “Chup Raho” from a visibly furious Nitish as he tried to speak despite his mic being turned off. It was only after the BJP accused Nitish of “insulting” a Dalit leader that Parliamentary Affairs minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary made attemots to calm the CM down.

Following the Assembly session, Manjhi told media that Nitish was flustered as he had questioned the authenticity of the findings of the caste survey and said that higher quotas will need heightened monitoring at the ground level. “Nitish Kumar’s use of derogatory language against me shows he has become mentally unstable,” Manjhi said.

The former CM also said that Nitish had appointed him CM in 2014 since he feared that there would be calls seeking his own resignation following the party’s failure in the 2014 general elections. “He thought I would be a rubber-stamp CM. However, when I started taking decisions on my own, Nitish and his people started having problems,” Manjhi added.