The political slugfest between the Bihar government and the opposition BJP continued over the payment of compensation to the kin of Saran hooch victims even as saffron party MP Sushil Modi claimed that more than 100 people have died in the tragedy and family members of the deceased were performing last rites without postmortem due to fear of police. Officially, however, there have only been 38 deaths in Saran district in "dry" Bihar, the most of whom were the poor. Modi said that he had met the families of those who lost their lives in the tragedy.
While the Left parties, which support the Nitish Kumar government from outside, are in favour of financial relief to the hooch victims, CM Nitish Kumar’s party JD(U)’s parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha said, “if somebody is manufacturing bombs illegally and gets killed during the blasts in the process, is the government responsible for that? Does it make the case for government compensation,” Kushwaha asked and said compensating the deceased in the hooch tragedy would amount to encouraging crime. He even termed BJP’s demand as “irresponsible.” However, his remarks invited sharp criticism from Sushil Modi.