Patna, April 23: BJP leaders raised swords today to mark the vijayotsav (victory day) of Rajput warrior Veer Kunwar Singh and used the occasion to attack chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Wearing turbans and raising slogans of Bharat Mata ki Jai, the party took on Nitish's purported challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for 2019.

"What is your standing, Nitish Kumar that you would challenge or remove Narendra Modi? He will again become Prime Minister," said Sushil Kumar Modi leading the charge. "You have always been a chief minister piggybacking on the BJP or Lalu. You won just 70 seats in the Assembly elections, and you are now saying that you would unite other parties and work against the RSS and BJP?"

Sushil, a former deputy chief minister, insisted unlike Nitish, other chief ministers such as Bengal's Mamata Banerjee or Odisha's Naveen Patnaik always came to power on their own strengths.

"You (Nitish) talk about unity of all parties opposed to the BJP. First unite Mulayam and Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh; the Trinamul Congress and the CPM in Bengal; the DMK and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu; Naveen Patnaik and Congress in Odisha; and Badruddin Ajmal and the Congress in Assam and then talk about uniting parties to counter the BJP," he added.

The BJP's verbal missiles were launched from Rabindra Bhavan where the party organised a programme to honour Veer Kunwar, who led a band of soldiers against the troops under the East India Company's command during the first war of Indian independence in 1857 and emerged victorious in a battle at Jagdishpur (Bhojpur) on April 23, 1858.

Sushil added: "Nitish is just an opportunist and a man without principles, who was with us to become Union minister and chief minister."