BJP blames Nitish Kumar for violence in 'successful' Bihar bandh

PATNA: The BJP claimed that spontaneous support by people made today's ' Bihar bandh' called by it successful and held Chief Minister Nitish Kumar responsible for the violence during the shutdown, called to protest against the JD(U)'s 'betrayal'.

"The public spontaneously took part in the day-long bandh and made it fully successful to vent their ire on the JD(U) for insulting and betraying their mandate to the NDA government in 2010 assembly polls," BJP state unit president Mangal Pandey told reporters.

Though train and essential services were exempted from the purview of the bandh, the people showed their disgust for the 'opportunistic' conduct of the JD(U) in breaking ties with the NDA that they stopped trains in Nitish Kumar's native district Nalanda and elsewhere, Pandey said.

On the clash between the JD(U) and BJP supporters in Patna, he accused the Chief Minister of instigating his party workers to attack BJP workers, including women and minorities and claimed Kumar's secular claims now lay in tatters.

The incident took place at the behest of Kumar as JD(U) spokesman Rajiv Ranjan led a group of JD(U) workers to a BJP office and attacked the party's minority front workers injuring a woman Farida Khatun, Pandey said.

"The recovery of an unlicensed rifle from a JD(U) leader's vehicle proved the ruling party's conspiracy to sabotage the peaceful bandh," he said in presence of ex-Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and central leaders like Ravishankar Prasad and Syed Shahanwaz Hussain.

The JD(U) hoodlums enjoyed state patronage as none of them was arrested despite the injured woman lodging a named FIR, he alleged.

The BJP minority front would stage a dharna near the Kargil Chowk here tomorrow to protest against the violence on them by JD(U) workers, Pandey said adding the RJD's culture of violence had now taken up by the JD(U).

Hussain said Kumar was basking in the glory of praise by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who described him as 'secular' though he enjoyed power being in the BJP led NDA for 17 years at the Centre and in Bihar.