Patna, Nov 2 (IANS): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is regularly making verbal gaffes at public events with the latest incident on on Thursday when he claimed that the CPI and the CPI-M helped him in the election he had contested in 1987.

While addressing a rally organised by the CPI in Miller High School ground, he said: "I have an old relationship with the leaders of the CPI. When I contested the Assembly election in 1987, the CPI and the CPI-M had helped me. Hence, my relationship with CPI has not developed recently. It is very old."

However, there was no election held in Bihar in 1987.

Nitish Kumar had first contested Assembly elections in 1977 under the leadership of Jay Prakash Narayan but lost. He again contested the election in 1980 and lost again. He was elected for the first time to the Assembly election from Harnaut constituency in Nalanda district in 1985 and then he was elected to the Lok Sabha MP from Barh in 1989. Since then, he has never contested an Assembly election in Bihar. Currently, he is an MLC.

Nitish Kumar's earlier gaffes have become a point of discussion in the political circle of Bihar.

Recently at a Janata Darbar, he asked the officers there to make a call to the Home Minister, leaving them in an awkward situation as he holds the post himself. As he repeatedly asked them to call the Minister, the officers finally called a senior IAS officer.

In another event, Nitish Kumar termed himself the Union Home Minister of the country and said that when he was holding the post, he gave reservation to sports persons in the department. However, Nitish Kumar did not hold the post at the Centre as he was the Railway and Agriculture Minister there.

On October 12, he had referred to Chief Secretary Amir Subhani as "Chief Mukhya Mantri". When officials corrected him, he then referred to him as Chief Secretary and declared himself the "Faltu Mukhya Mantri".