Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was on Sunday flayed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal for placing his arm around the shoulders of a woman at a public function where Union Home Minister Amit Shah was also present.
The opposition party shared a video clip of the event held at the sprawling Bapu Sabhagar auditorium in Patna where the two leaders launched central and state projects worth more than Rs 800 crore.
Shah also gave away "dummy cheques" to beneficiaries of schemes under the Union Ministry for Cooperation, another portfolio that he holds.
One such recipient, a middle-aged rural woman, apparently failed to understand that Shah was requesting her to pose for a photograph.
At this juncture, the 74-year-old chief minister tugged at her arm and made her stand facing the posse of journalists and photographers, with his arm around her shoulders.
The RJD wrote on its X handle, in Hindi, "Just see how Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is pulling towards himself a woman in an objectionable manner with Home Minister Amit Shah looking on".
"Bihar is being shamed by the chief minister, who is unwell, and the BJP which is helpless", alleged the opposition party, which has been claiming that the longest-serving CM has grown physically and mentally unsound.
Mimicking the style of the JD-U supremo, whom the opposition party accuses of believing "the world came to exist after he became the chief minister", the RJD added, "Had any chief minister acted like this before 2005? It happened only after I came to power".