A BJP legislator from Bihar went all the way to Kota in his vehicle to bring back his son stranded in the Rajasthan city during the Covid-19 lockdown, giving the Opposition an opportunity to accuse chief minister Nitish Kumar of “double standards”.

The Bihar chief minister, a BJP ally, had slammed his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath’s government on Saturday for sending buses to bring back students of his state stranded in Kota, a coaching hub for engineering and medical entrance examinations.

Nitish had said such an act would be a violation of the lockdown and defeat its purpose to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

On Sunday, it emerged that BJP MLA Anil Kumar Singh, from Hisua constituency in Nawada district, had obtained a pass from the Nitish government on April 15 to bring back his son. The pass provided by a sub-divisional magistrate was valid from April 16 to 25. Anil started from Patna on April 16, picked up his son from Kota the next day and reached Patna on April 18.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said Nitish was “differentiating” between common people and the privileged.

“Nitish preaches lockdown rules and objectives to Uttar Pradesh chief minister and criticises the move to make buses available to bring students back from Kota, but on the other hand provides permit to an ally MLA to bring his son back to Bihar. Several such passes have been issued to VIPs and officers in a clandestine manner,” Tejashwi said.

“He (Nitish) is differentiating between the common people and special persons even in this time of the pandemic. He is not worried about bringing home migrant workers and students belonging to simple families. We understand his double standards well.”