Patna: Former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Saturday slammed chief minister Nitish Kumar for saying the poor had benefited the most from prohibition.

He said the next time the Grand Alliance forms the government, the first thing the alliance will do is release people jailed in frivolous liquor cases.

"When the Grand Alliance forms the government, people arrested for possessing half a bottle of liquor and other poor people who are put behind bars would be released. We will also release all those who are in jail for consuming a peg or two of liquor or even a bottle. This is our demand to the present government and if they do not, we will do it," Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular chief Manjhi, who recently switched loyalties from the NDA camp to the RJD-led "grand alliance", said.

Manjhi clarified that he was not against prohibition but against the draconian provisions under which, he alleged, only poor people were being targeted.

"Provisions for all family members being liable to be jailed for a bottle on the premises is completely a black law and a Tughlaqi farman. We will cancel the Tughlaqi farman laid down," Manjhi said, reiterating that 1.27 lakh people are in jail for violating the prohibition law.

He said toddy should be kept out of the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016 and allowed to be consumed as it was a "natural juice" and raised question over the government policy to promote neera (unfermented palm sap drink).

He also demanded breathalyser tests be performed on IAS, IPS and ministers and MLAs instead on poor people who did not have money for bail. "Nitish does not have the guts to put the breathalyser in the mouth of these people... he can only show his power to the poor," Manjhi said, calling Nitish the second Gautam Buddha of Bihar for saying the poor had been benefited by prohibition.

"He thinks he is the most intelligent and the rest are fools. He thought that by making me chief minister, he could order me around but that did not happen," Manjhi said. "Nitish has an illusion that whatever he thinks is right but he should not think he is the most kaabil person."