Chief minister Nitish Kumar lost his cool on Tuesday when Rabri Devi and other RJD legislators were seen in green clothing to demand the restoration of 65 per cent reservation for deprived castes.

The two Bihar laws raising the quota ceiling in government jobs and educational institutions were set aside by the Patna High Court last year. The state government has challenged the judgment in the Supreme Court.

Tension piled up in the bicameral legislature since morning as RJD MLAs and MLCs came sporting green shirts, t-shirts and dupattas. A few Left MLAs also sported them.

The t-shirts had words printed on them asking for the twin reservation laws “brought during RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav’s government” to be included in the IXth schedule of the Constitution to protect them from being challenged in the courts, and a slogan: “Aarakshan chor BJP-NDA jawab do.” (Reservation thieves BJP and NDA should answer why the laws were not included in the schedule).

The Opposition legislators demonstrated at the entrances of the legislative Assembly and the legislative Council before the session began for the day. They raised slogans inside the Houses as well.

The RJD was a part of the Nitish-led Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) government between August 2022 and January 2024 and Tejashwi was the deputy chief minister in it.

Nitish, 74, exploded when they created a ruckus in the Council and engaged in a spat with Rabri, 66, marking yet another heated exchange. His language was rough and disparaging.

“See this drama. You can see this only in this party (read RJD). Have you seen such a thing anywhere in the country?” Nitish said, while gesturing to the journalists present in the media gallery of the Council, and proceeded to bludgeon Rabri as she rose to protest the remarks.

“You just stay out of this. The party is not yours, but of your husband (read Lalu Prasad). This hapless woman was brought (made the chief minister) just like that. When he was rejected, he put her in his place. She is here just like that,” Nitish said.

Rabri became the chief minister in 1997, when her husband had to step down following a CBI chargesheet in the ₹1,000 crore fodder scam and was about to be arrested. She was the chief minitser of Bihar till 2005.

The chief minister asked why the legislators were wearing such clothes inside the House and went on to assert that it had “no meaning” and was “bogus”.

As the heated confrontation went on, deputy chief minister and BJP leader Samrat Choudhary intervened.

“Nitish Kumar’s government had passed the proposals to increase the reservation ceiling to 65 per cent with unanimous support from all parties. Who is opposing the proposal they (the Opposition) have brought? If the matter is pending in the court, let it decide,” Choudhary said.

The ongoing budget session of the Bihar legislature has witnessed several heated exchanges between Nitish and Rabri.