Congress accuses BJP for distracting people from price rise

RANCHI: The Congress today accused the BJP of trying to distract people from issues like price rise through its "failed" demonstration and observation of "black day", while BJP held the Hemant Soren government in Jharkhand responsible for alleged police brutality on its party workers.

"BJP observed black day for the evil works it had done during its rule," Congress leader Ajay Rai said in a release here.

He claimed BJP's demonstration was a failure and the party had indulged in such "dramas" to distract people from rising prices across the country.

"But the people will not come in its gimmicks as they know BJP ruled the state for a long period," Rai said.

A BJP press release quoting Vinod Pandey, the party's national secretary and in-charge for Jharkhand, said the party had observed a "black day" today against yesterday's incident and "we have pledged to take the anti-people actions by the state government to the people".

Earlier in the day, BJP MLAs wore black badges in the state Assembly protesting against "police brutality" during the party's demonstration.

The police had said they used tear gas shells and water cannon to disperse about 3,000 BJP demonstrators near the Assembly yesterday when they climbed the HEC gate and tried to break it.