Patna, Sep 5 (IANS): Union Minister of State (MoS) for Home and BJP MP from Ujiarpur Nityanand Rai said on Thursday the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) workers were involved in most of the crime incidents in Bihar.

Nityanand Rai's remark came a day after RJD leader and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Tejashwi Yadav released a post sharing crime statistics in the state on social media platform X.

Talking to media persons at Patna airport, Nityanand Rai alleged: "RJD has a tradition of sheltering criminals. If RJD workers stop engaging in hooliganism, extortion and protecting criminals, the crime rate in Bihar will drastically decrease.”

He further claimed that Tejashwi Yadav, while publicly attacking the state government is "leading these hooligans" within the state.

"Tejashwi himself leads hooligans, what can he tell others? Hooliganism has become a tradition and culture of RJD," Nityanand Rai claimed.

Hitting out at Tejashwi, Janata Dal (United) MLC and spokesperson Neeraj said: "Why did he remain silent on the crime cases that happened during the Grand Alliance government, citing 8,832 murders that occurred during that time? Why is he not releasing crime statistics on that?"

The political war of words highlights the ongoing blame game between the ruling JD(U)-BJP coalition and the opposition RJD over the law-and-order situation in the state.

On Wednesday, Tejashwi released statistics of 105 criminal cases in the last few days to target the Nitish Kumar government.

Tejashwi expressed his dismay at the "escalating" crime rate, questioning the government's ability to maintain safety and order.

He wrote, "Soul-shaking criminal statistics of the last few days. If even after seeing the horrific figures of these incidents, you are seeing everything right in Bihar, then it means that everything is not right."

In a social media post, Tejashwi listed recent crime incidents, including a double murder in Saharsa, where a mother and daughter were brutally killed and a triple murder in Nalanda.