Patna, Jan. 17: The RJD and the JD(U) have locked horns over the state’s power issue.

Opposition RJD staged a demonstration in the capital to allege that chief minister Nitish Kumar was taking Bihar back to “lantern” age, a term reminiscent of the Lalu-Rabri regime.

The ruling JD(U) was not to be left behind and staged a dharna barely metres from the RJD rally, hurling counter allegations at the Centre’s UPA government for not giving Bihar its allotted share.

The state has been getting only 800MW to 1,100MW as against its demand of at least 1,400MW for the past 10 days.

RJD national general secretary Shyam Rajak said: “The government has not entered an agreement with the National Thermal Power Plant over its Kanti power plant. The agreement will only prove detrimental as the state would get less and less power from the Kanti plant.”

Rajak said the government, which makes “baseless” allegations against the RJD chief Lalu Prasad, should instead thank the Union railway minister for taking up Bihar’s problems more forcefully with the Centre. Rajak said the government “has been leading people to a lantern age because of stupid policies”.

JD(U) general-secretary Anil Pathak, however, said: “The government has shot off letters to the Centre to give an additional 300MW. The Centre gave power to Jharkhand only because it has a UPA government.” He added that the railway minister has been doing nothing for Bihar — but has been engaging in petty politics with his cabinet colleagues.

Meanwhile, chief minister has called an all-party meet on January 29 to discuss ways out of power crisis. The RJD, however, has not received any invitation so far. Rajak said his party would surely take part in the meet, if invited.