The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar on Monday deplored Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that rioters would be “hanged upside down if BJP came to power”, and termed it as a way to seek “cheap publicity”.

State parliamentary affairs minister and JD(U) leader Vinay Kumar Chaudhary lashed out at Shah, who had addressed a rally in Nawada district on Sunday, saying “as the home minister of the country it was incumbent upon him to have made an appeal for peace. But he used the occasion to exploit the situation electorally and gain cheap publicity”.