Patna, Nov. 12: Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has done it again. Barely five days after Nitish Kumar advised him against making controversial statements, Manjhi on Tuesday said the upper castes were foreigners.

'The upper castes are Aryans and have come from abroad. The tribals are the real inhabitants of this place,' Manjhi said at a function in Valmikinagar, West Champaran district, which has a substantial population of Tharu tribals.

The BJP was quick to slam Manjhi's remark.

Leader of opposition in the Assembly and senior state BJP leader in the state, Nand Kishore Yadav, criticised Manjhi for stirring up caste tension in the state.

Demanding an apology from the chief minister, Nand Kishore told reporters that Manjhi's statement had come after he received tips from former chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Yadav said: 'The statement has come after Manjhi met Nitish and the latter gave him some valuable tips. The former chief minister should clarify whether or not he agrees with Manjhi.'

Manjhi, who has stirred many a controversy in recent days and was upset when five cabinet colleagues skipped a function he attended on Thursday, met Nitish on Friday. At the meeting, which lasted over an hour, sources said, Nitish asked Manjhi to concentrate on good governance and refrain from making controversial statements.

At his weekly janata durbar on Monday, Manjhi admitted he was running the government with 'positive and valuable tips' from Nitish.

Nand Kishore went on to say the JDU leadership, especially Manjhi, was making more such controversial statements ever since the party tied up with the RJD. He said: 'Chief minister Manjhi and other JDU leaders are using the same words RJD leaders used to use during the Lalu-Rabri regime and it reflects the return of Jungle Raj.'

The BJP leader said Manjhi's remark amounts to sedition. Asked if the BJP would lodge a case against Manjhi, he declined an answer, saying, instead, that Nitish should first clear his stand before the BJP decides on the future course of action.

With the BJP keen on raising the issue, the political temperature of the state is set to heat up in the coming days. State water resources minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said: 'I don't know in what context Manjhi made the statement, but people of Bihar know former chief minister Nitish Kumar's mindset and there is no possibility Manjhi issued the statement after receiving tips from Nitish.'

The upper castes, by and large, supported the NDA in the last Lok Sabha polls.

In the run-up to the recent bypolls, too, JDU ally RJD had talked about recreating the Mandal era.

In more worrying news for the ruling party in the state, agencies reported that former Janata Dal MP Anil Kumar Yadav and JDU state general secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh joined the BJP with a large number of supporters.