The ruling alliance partners JD(U) and BJP in Bihar have come face to face over Patna University Students Union (PUSU) election with state BJP leaders obliquely targeting poll strategist and JD(U) national vice-President Prashant Kishor for “influencing the election.”
Ever since Mr. Kishor joined the JD(U) he has been meeting with youths and students for several consecutive days to rope them in to the party. He, of late, had also met with party’s student wing leaders of Patna University in view of the upcoming election, scheduled to be held on December 5, and chalked out strategy to win the poll.
Recently, while campaigning for the poll, students belonging to Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) which is affiliated to the RSS had a clash with JD(U)’s student wing leaders.
Later, the JD(U) student wing leaders lodged a complaint with the local police station against ABVP students. The police swung into action immediately and raided the local ABVP office to arrest those named in the case.
The police raid at the ABVP office irked the State BJP leadership and they pressed four local party legislators to come out in support of the ABVP on the incident. The State BJP leaders, three of them local party MLAs and one MLC — Arun Sinha, Sanjiv Chaurasia, Nitin Navin and Sanjay Paswan — later condemned the police raid on ABVP office and issued a press release targeting Mr. Kishor, though obliquely.
“Certain event management professionals are being used to influence the outcome of the student union elections of Patna University…the ABVP candidates and their supporters are being terrorised by the police and the administration,” said the press release issue by them. The BJP Youth Morcha too came out in support of the ABVP and protested against government at Income-Tax intersection on Sunday in Patna.
Meanwhile, JD(U) leaders said the BJP leaders have “unnecessarily” reacted to a small clash between students of two different organisations.
