Patna: Nearly half-a-dozen people were injured here in a clash, several trains stopped, roads blocked and top BJP leaders taken into custody across Bihar during the party’s state-wide shutdown yesterday to protest what it called betrayal by the JD-U.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claimed that the shutdown was near total, but police said normal life was not hit by the stir. Top BJP leaders and more than 500 workers were taken into custody during the shutdown.
According to police, hundreds of BJP workers led by party leaders took to the streets across the state but failed to receive support from the people.
“Only BJP workers, leaders and some of their supporters with placards, party flags and banners in their hands, joined the protest during the shutdown,” a district police official said here.
Bihar BJP president Mangal Pandey, however, told media persons here that it was a near-total shutdown. “People have supported the shutdown,” he asserted.
Nearly half a dozen workers of BJP and JD-U were injured when they attacked each other with bamboo sticks and iron rods in Patna during the shutdown.
The BJP workers and leaders were protesting “betrayal” by the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U), which ended its 17-year-old alliance with BJP on Sunday over the BJP’s decision to make Modi its public face for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
IANS
