'After 5pm it was dangerous to step out': BJP's Maithili Thakur likens pre-2005 Bihar to ‘Dhritarashtra’s Hastinapur’

PATNA: BJP MLA and singer Maithili Thakur launched a sharp attack on RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav during her maiden speech in the Bihar Assembly on Friday, invoking references from the Mahabharata to contrast past and present governance in the state.Drawing an analogy without directly naming individuals at first, the 25-year-old legislator likened the pre-2005 regime to the rule of ‘Dhritarashtra’, the blind king from the epic. She said Dhritarashtra did not wish to see citizen's problems, being more concerned about his son Duryodhana than the welfare of his kingdom.In an apparent reference to Lalu Prasad and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, Thakur remarked, “Whenever I think about that time, I remember Dhritarashtra’s Hastinapur. The king was not worried about Hastinapur, only about his Duryodhana.”Calling the earlier period an era of “jungle raj,” Thakur claimed Bihar suffered setbacks in education and public safety.Maithili Thakur said that before 2005, it was nearly impossible to step out of the house after evening hours. “People used to say, ‘Don’t get out of the car after 5 pm; it’s dangerous.’ Today, as an artist and MLA, I leave Darbhanga at 3 am and reach my home in Patna safely. This change reflects improved law and order,” she said.Praising chief minister Nitish Kumar, she said “When Nitish Kumar assumed power, good governance arrived,” she said, citing improvements in law and order.Thakur also highlighted the impact of the state’s bicycle scheme for schoolgirls. “In my own village, where there was barely any discussion about schooling, girls began attending school after the cycle programme started,” she said. “Though the opposition mocked it initially, today it stands as a model for the country.”