BJP for the first time today demanded resignation of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying he should step down for 'criminal negligence' of security arrangements at its October 27 rally here.
"He (Kumar) should take moral responsibility for risking the lives of lakhs of people by criminally neglecting security arrangements at the October 27 rally and resign as chief minister," senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said here.
The resignation demand came after a meeting of Bihar BJP district units here, Sushil Modi told PTI.
This is the first occasion that BJP, which separated from JD(U) on June 16 last on the issue of elevation of Narendra Modi in the party, has demanded resignation of Nitish Kumar.
Referring to Kumar's defence that there was no security lapse on the rally day, Sushil Modi asked him to issue a 'white paper' on arrangements made by the state government for November 4, 2012 'Adhikar Rally' of JD(U) and October 27, 2013 'Hoonkar Rally' of BJP at Gandhi Maidan.
"There was no CCTV camera, no frisking of people entering Gandhi Maidan for the Hoonkar rally or metal detectors (at the Hoonkar rally ground)," he said.
Sushil Modi, who was the erstwhile deputy chief minister of NDA government in Bihar, disputed the chief minister's comments that terrorists had in fact helped BJP as the rally was a 'flop' in terms of crowd turnout.
"As per figures provided by the district units more than 7 lakh people had come to Gandhi Maidan (the venue) for the Hoonkar rally ... More than 30,000 had come for the rally from CM's home Nalanda district alone," he said poohpoohing Kumar's claim.
Kumar had earlier in the day told reporters that the rally was a 'flop' as Gandhi Maidan was empty.
