Jungle Raj 2.0: Bihar sees second political killing in seven days

PATNA: The Bihar vice-president of BJP was shot dead on Friday in the second murder of a politician in the state within a week and the seventh high-profile killing since the JD(U)-RJD-Congress government assumed office on November 20, 2015.

Visheshwar Ojha was gunned down, and three of his associates injured, in Bhojpur, around 75km from the state capital. Ojha was on his way to a market in an SUV, with his bodyguard and five others, when the criminals riddled him with bullets. Last week, LJP functionary Brijnath Singh was mowed down by criminals firing from AK-47 assault rifles in Patna’s congested Kachchi Dargah locality.

The latest bloodletting comes amid an increasing perception that chief minister Nitish Kumar is helpless in controlling criminal elements. The killings have sharply escalated the political cost for Kumar for his alliance with RJD, and are soiling his reputation as a CM who had restored law and order during his first two terms.

Kumar’s review meetings with IPS officers and emphasis on zero tolerance towards crime have proved woefully ineffective so far.

BJP described Ojha’s killing as “yet another instance of political murder” under Nitish, and gave the police a 72-hour ultimatum to arrest the assailants. “Otherwise, we will decide a course of direct action against the rise in crime,” a party spokesman said.



Former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi added, “The CM has lost his will to run the affairs of the state.”

A native of Ojhawalia village in Bhojpur, Ojha had contested the 2015 assembly elections as a BJP candidate from Shahpur and was defeated by RJD’s Rahul Tiwary. Ojha’s sister-in-law Munni Devi has represented Shahpur twice in the assembly as a BJP MLA.

According to police records, Ojha was charged in at least 10 cases of murder, attempt to murder and theft. . No FIR had been lodged in his murder till the time of going to press.