Patna, Feb. 22 : Opposition leaders in the Bihar Assembly hooted Governor, R. S. Gavai, a Maharashtrian, during his customary inaugural address at the opening of the 40-day Assembly session on Thursday.

The Governor faced a tough time as the opposition shouted slogans such as "stop atrocities on Biharis" and demanded that Gavai be sent back to Maharashtra.

Gavai faced the opposition members’ ire in the wake of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS)-related violence on Biharis in Mumbai because of their eastern and northern origin.

The Governor had to make a hasty exit from the Assembly, but took time off to tell the media that it was regrettable that his work was being targeted because of the ethnic row.

"Opposition leaders calling me Maharashtrian, I don't mind that, but they commenting on my work I do not appreciate that. But at the same time, I am not angry over this issue," said Gavai.

Raj Thackeray has been charged by the police for instigating hatred between communities through his vitriolic campaign against people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar flocking to Maharashtra in search of jobs.

MNS activists recently went on a rampage in Mumbai and damaged vehicles, besides ransacking a cinema showing a regional language film.

The violence, in which a youth was killed in Nasik and several injured, prompted many migrants to flee Maharashtra.

Local authorities had to initiate a peace rally to calm North Indians living in the city.

Thackeray's MNS is a breakaway faction of the State's opposition Hindu radical Shiv Sena, which earlier used to whip up regional sentiments, espousing the cause of the Marathi speaking people of the State. (ANI)