Chirag Paswan meets BJP chief Nadda, later expresses 'grave concern' over law and order in Bihar

New Delhi: Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan met BJP president J P Nadda on Thursday and later fired another salvo at the Bihar government over the law-and-order situation following the killing of a murder convict inside a private hospital in Patna.

The two leaders are learnt to have discussed the political situation in the poll-bound Bihar, but there was no official word on the details of the meeting.

In a post on X, Paswan later said the law-and-order situation in the state has become a matter of "grave concern" as murders are happening daily, the morale of criminals is "sky-high", and the functioning of police and overall administration defies reason.

Citing the incident of killing inside a hospital, he said criminals are brazenly challenging the rule of law.

"Rising incidents of crime ahead of the assembly polls are a matter of concern. Hope the administration will take solid and stringent measures to restore law and order," he said.

Paswan has of late become a trenchant critic of the law-and-order situation in the state where the BJP-JD(U) alliance, of which his party is a member, is in power.

With JD(U) president Nitish Kumar as chief minister, who is also in charge of the home department, the young leader's attack is being seen aimed at Kumar, with whom he has long had an uneasy equation.

Amid questions being asked about the health of the Bihar's longest serving chief minister, who has been at the helm since 2005, except for a nine-month period between May 2014 and February 2015 when he had installed his then-party colleague Jitam Ram Manjhi in his place, Paswan's party has been seeking a bigger role for its leader in the state as the polls draw close.

Assembly polls are due in Bihar in October-November.