Days after a woman in Bihar’s Gaya district was allegedly raped in an emergency vehicle, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan on Saturday said that he regretted supporting the National Democratic Alliance government in the state, The Hindu reported.

The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), along with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.

“I feel sorry to be supporting the government in Bihar, which is failing on the law and order front like this,” the newspaper quoted Paswan as telling reporters in Patna. “The way crime is happening in Bihar, the administration has totally bowed down before criminals.”

He said that the alleged rape that took place in Gaya on July 24 deserved to be condemned. “But why are such incidents happening?” the Union minister asked. “There is a series of crimes, and if it continues like this, the situation will become frightening or is already so.”

Claiming that crime had become uncontrolled in Bihar, Pawan accused the state government of “either trying to hush up the situation” or being unable to handle law and order in the state.

“If it is said that this is happening because of election, I can say it might possibly be so, and it might be a conspiracy to defame the government,” The Hindu quoted him as saying. “But even then, it’s the responsibility of the administration to control it…The situation in the state has become scary.”

The Assembly elections in the state are expected to take place in October or November.

According to the police complaint in the Bodh Gaya case, the woman was raped in an emergency vehicle after she fainted during a physical test for recruiting Home Guards. She alleged that she had been raped by ambulance staffers, after which two men were arrested on Friday.

Paswan’s remarks on Saturday also come amid a spate of murders in the state over the past month.

Responding to his remarks, the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Mrityunjay Tiwari said that his party had been drawing attention to the law and order situation in the state for months, The Hindu reported.

“What Mr Paswan is saying today, we have been crying for months – that the law and order situation in the state has collapsed completely,” the newspaper quoted Tiwari as saying. “Mr Paswan has called a spade a spade.”

Congress spokesperson Rajesh Rathore told The Hindu that the party agreed with what Paswan had said about the deteriorating law and order situation in Bihar. “Every citizen in the state is feeling the same…How long with the people of Bihar keep suffering?” Rathore asked.

However, the Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular, also an NDA partner in Bihar, rejected Pawan’s remarks and claimed that his remarks suggested a rift between the allies, the newspaper reported.

“We are in the NDA and we have to help the NDA,” party chief and former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said. “We wish him [Paswan] all the best. He should strengthen the NDA as NDA today has become necessary for society and the country.”

BJP leader Bhim Singh claimed that it was surprising that Paswan was making such remarks on the law and order situation. “Tackling and maintaining law and order has been the main focus of Nitish Kumar government,” Singh said. “Everybody knows this fact in Bihar and beyond.”

Despite being part of the NDA, Paswan has at times struck an independent tone.

He had taken credit for the Union government’s decision to withdraw the controversial lateral entry appointments in bureaucracy. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) had also expressed support for the contentious Waqf Amendment Bill being sent to the joint parliamentary committee for scrutiny.

Paswan had also joined the Opposition’s call for a nationwide caste census and supported a Bharat Bandh against the Supreme Court’s decision to allow sub-classification in reservations for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes.