Nitish should apologise for non-performance, quit: Kushwaha

Former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha on Saturday said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should apologise to the people of Bihar for not doing "anything" in the past 14 years and tender his resignation.

The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief alleged that Kumar has failed to deliver on all fronts, especially on the law and order situation.

"A series of murders have been taking place in different parts of the state. It seems that criminals have a free run in Bihar. People are living under constant fear... The situation is worse than what it was during 15 years of that regime (of the RJD)," Kushwaha told reporters here.

"The CM could not do anything in the past 14 years and will not be able to do much, too, in the next 14 months (assembly elections are due in October-November 2020). People of Bihar have also understood it, so you should apologise to them and quit the post," he said.

The RLSP head cited official records to emphasise that incidents of crime had risen since 2005, the year in which Kumar took over the reins from RJD's Rabri Devi.

Kushwaha said that the number of cognisable offences was 1,04,778 in the year 2004 when the RJD was in power, but it increased to 1,95,024 in 2014 and 2,62,802 in 2018.

The figure touched 1,08,902 during the first five months of this year till May, he claimed.

The former Union minister added that over 1,250 cases of murder were registered in the January-May period of 2019.