NEW DELHI: Affronted Biharis have been sending hundreds of thousands of DNA samples to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi following the premier's jibe against Bihar Chief Minister Nitesh Kumar, according to a report published on the BBC website.

Modi had earlier said that CM Kumar's decision to sever electoral ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) early in 2013, had meant there was something wrong with his "political DNA".

Prior to the 2014 general elections held in India, Kumar had protested Modi’s candidacy and questioned his secular credentials suggesting that he could exacerbate communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims in India.

Kumar said the Indian premier had hurt the sentiments of Biharis by implying that Bihari DNA was poor. He said that the people of the Indian state, in protest, would send 5 million samples of their DNA to Modi.

A member of Kumar's Janata Dal United (JDU) said that 600,000 people had sent DNA samples to the prime minister's office, while his office in the state capital had been sent 1.5m samples of DNA.

Delhi's head of postal services said the Indian premier receives around two to three mail bags a day, each containing approximately 1,000 letters.

Another postal department official said that the service had delivered 47 bags to Modi's office over the past few days.

The letters contain DNA samples in the form of hair strands and nail clippings, and many are marked "shabd wapsi" or "take back your words".

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