Tejashwi questions Nitish’s ‘health’ after he garlands female candidate at election rally

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar gave rise to fresh speculations about his mental health on Tuesday when he insisted on garlanding a female NDA candidate and ticked off a close aide who tried to stop him.

The JD(U) supremo launched his assembly poll campaign in the Meenapur constituency of Muzaffarpur district, where he had the crowds in splits for mispronouncing local party candidate Ajay Kushwaha’s name and adding the prefix “Shri” to Rama Nishad, the BJP candidate from Aurai.

The 75-year-old said during his speech that if the public promised to vote for NDA, he would like to put garlands around the necks of candidates as a mark of assured victory.

Nishad, who had joined BJP last week, was seen squirming when Kumar moved towards her with a garland in his hand.

In local Hindu traditions, a woman cannot let anyone except her husband put a garland around her neck.

Kumar’s close aide, Sanjay Kumar Jha, JD(U)’s working president, hurriedly tried to prevent his mentor from creating a scene by catching hold of the CM’s hand.

However, sensing that Kumar was not taking kindly to the intervention, Jha retracted his steps, and the septuagenarian blurted “you are a strange man” before placing the garland around the neck of Nishad.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav shared the video clip on his X handle with the remark, “He is a strange man indeed. If he is in sound mental health, why is he reading out from a written speech and indulging in such behaviour?”