Patna: An uncharitable and highly objectionable remark against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ally is threatening to shatter peace in the state ahead of polls with the ruling coalition serving an open warning to “retaliate in the same way”.

It started after the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), a smaller ally of the BJP, accused the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) regime of targeting a particular upper caste and threatened to break the rib-cage of the chief minister if he did not mend his ways.

“I neither oppose nor support the state government’s action against Anant Singh (a gangster-turned-JD-U lawmaker) but the way the police have gone on targeting a particular caste after his arrest will never be tolerated. Nitish Kumar should know we have not worn bangles in our hands and will smash his rib-cage if he tried to attack our prestige,” state RLSP president Arun Kumar declared at a media conference held in the BJP office on Sunday. He issued the threats in the presence of senior BJP leaders present at the press meet.

Kumar, also a RLSP parliamentarian, accused Kumar of dumping Singh after exploiting his services for over a decade.

Singh, a JD-U lawmaker who faces around 40 criminal cases, was arrested last week in connection with a kidnapping case and government has now asked the enforcement directorate to also inquire into his property which allegedly increased more than a thousand times in the past decade since the JD-U government came to power in November 2005. The arrested lawmaker who earlier went unchallenged in the JD-U regime comes from an influential Bhumihar caste which has always been at war with the Yadavs, the traditional vote-bank of Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

The remark has drawn strong protests from the RJD which threatened to retaliate in the same fashion. “The NDA (National Democratic Alliance) leaders should refrain from making such comments which could lead to caste tensions. The consequences will be serious if we acted in similar way,” RJD chief Prasad warned, adding his party stood solidly behind the chief minister.

He said the RJD favours the establishment of a “rule of law” in Bihar and anyone trying to create tension in the state would be sternly dealt with. “Nobody is above the law”, Prasad warned, asking the government to act firmly against the criminals.

The ruling JD-U too condemned the remark in the strongest-possible manner.

“The remark is aimed at fomenting caste tension in the state and indicative of the fast falling political standard,” state JD-U chief Vashishtha Narayan Singh said.

“One should never cross the boundary of decency in politics,” he said, asking the BJP to explain its position.

Earlier, a senior BJP lawmaker Ashwini Choube had termed Lalu-Nitish duo as “Ranga-Billa”, two notorious criminals sent to gallows in 1982 for assaulting a schoolgirl in New Delhi in 1978 and Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi as “Putana”, a demonic mythical character. The BJP leaders have also gone on record likening the Nitish-Lalu’s mega alliance to an “alliance of cheats”.