A day after the Income Tax Department conducted raids at 22 locations in New Delhi and adjoining areas in connection with the alleged benami (proxy) land deals linked to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and his family members, a clash broke out between workers of the RJD and the BJP in Patna on Wednesday. Several workers from both parties were injured.
The BJP later filed a police complaint against Mr. Prasad and his two Minister-sons for “orchestrating the attack on the BJP office”.
At least six partymen from the BJP and others from the RJD were injured in the clash which broke out after hundreds of bare-bodied RJD youth wing workers marched to the BJP office at Beerchand Patel Path, shouting slogans against BJP and its party leader Sushil Kumar Modi for “continuously attacking the RJD chief and his family”.
The protesting RJD partymen were, apparently, also furious at the Income Tax raid on Mr. Prasad and his kin on Tuesday.
Carrying party flags, the RJD youth wing workers reached the BJP office, just 100 metres from the RJD office on the same road, and a clash broke out. They exchanged baton blows and threw bottles and stones at each other. Several vehicles parked outside the BJP office too were damaged. The police had a tough time controlling the situation.
In the BJP office at Patna, no senior leader was present as the party had called a State-wide dharna against corruption, while demanding that the two sons of the RJD chief [Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav] be sacked from the Nitish Cabinet.
‘Shameful attack’
“It was an attack on the BJP office to gag the voice of the opposition,” alleged senior State BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.
Describing the attack as “shameful”, State BJP president Nityanand Rai said it happened “on the direction of Lalu Prasad Yadav…we’ll take this issue to the court and not be distracted from the real issue of corruption charges against Lalu Prasad and his family members.”
A delegation of BJP leaders met the Director General of Police P.K. Thakur and demanded action against RJD workers. “We will take action after verifying the evidence,” said Additional Director General of Police (headquarter), S.K. Singhal.
RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha blamed the BJP workers for first throwing stones and beer bottles on the “peaceful march” of RJD workers. “As many 26 RJD workers were injured…the police should investigate how beer bottles came in the BJP office in dry Bihar,” Mr. Jha told journalists in Patna.
