BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday charged former chief minister Nitish Kumar with running corruption and crime protection bureau for the survival of the minority JDU government in the state.

Modi said: “Criminal activities and corruption have gone up in the state after the JDU tied up with the RJD.” He claimed that transfers and postings in violation of guidelines reflected corruption in the bureaucracy.

Modi issued the statements apparently referring to Nitish’s renewed bonhomie with Lalu and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief Om Prakash Chautala. Both Lalu and Chautala were earlier convicted in corruption cases.

Modi’s jibe at Nitish was also a response to the latter’s recent Facebook comment stating, “Sushilji, main koi marriage bureau to chalata nahi (Sushilji, I do not run a marriage bureau)”. Nitish had posted the comment on the social networking site after Modi claimed that the former chief minister had proximity to a key health official allegedly involved in the medicine scam.

The BJP leader had asked Nitish whether the sister-in-law of Sanjay Kumar was married to the maternal nephew of RCP Singh, his former principal secretary and now a JDU Rajya Sabha member, or not. Sanjay, the former health joint secretary, was one of the members of the purchase committee of Bihar Medical Services and Infrastructure Corporation Limited — the agency assigned the task of purchasing medicines.

The medicine scam has turned out to be a big issue following the death of a patient after being administered spurious medicine at a government hospital in Bhagalpur in March this year. Modi also attacked Nitish for going overboard on getting a clean chit from chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh in the medicine scam. “It is natural that a chief secretary (read Anjani Singh) who has worked as principal secretary under Nitish is bound to comply with his political master’s directives,” Modi said:

The BJP leader, who has been relentlessly attacking Nitish for his alleged involvement in the medicine scam, said a fair probe could be done only by a central agency. The state BJP would intensively carry out campaign against the scam after the Chhath festival.