A vigilant administration in the state did not allow communal disputes to escalate into riots, chief minister Nitish Kumar said during his Lok Samvad programme in Patna on Monday.

'I will not take names but some people tried hard to engineer riots. They spared no efforts but did not succeed in their designs. Some small disputes did happen. Incidents of stone pelting at some places, sloganeering and use of abusive language happened. However, they were amicably resolved. Small incidents did not escalate into riots,' Nitish told The Telegraph on being asked if communal incidents were on the rise in Bihar.

'They first spread rumours during Bakr-Id that the minority community will not be allowed to conduct sacrifices, and then made noises to create disturbance, but they failed,' Nitish said during the media interaction after Lok Samvad at 1 Aney Marg.

Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and other ministers were present at the news meet following the chief minister's public dialogue.

Nitish, known to closely monitor law and order situation and incidents of communal tension - at times by keeping awake through the night - revealed that the same elements tried to create tension during Vijaya Dashami and Muharram that fell on consecutive days this year.

Internet services were blocked in several districts during Bakr-Id, Durga Puja and Muharram and the state government deployed massive forces to ensure that the occasions passed peacefully in the second most populous state in the country without any major strife between communities.

Government sources said Nitish was hinting at people connected to the RJD of trying to rake up strife over the last two months in an alleged design to corner him since he broke away from the Grand Alliance government and allied with the BJP.

They claimed a few RJD leaders had been involved in rioting and an attack on Nitish's cavalcade and inciting aggrieved sections of the society between 2010 and 2015 to create uproar at his meetings.

Nitish on Monday said all religions had some mad ( sirfire) people but 'these are the kind of people who could kill somebody like Mahatma Gandhi, who spent his life practising and preaching non-violence'.

The chief minister asserted that the peaceful festive season gone by showed that the people of Bihar believe in living in harmony, but advised people to always remain alert.