PATNA: A violent clash between BJP and Congress workers played out in Patna on Wednesday, leaving many injured, as the BJP took out a procession from the Kurji hospital to the Congress state headquarters, barely a few hundred metres away, to protest Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s sit-in outside the Prime Minister’s residence in Delhi a day before.
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The BJP has launched a nationwide campaign against Rahul Gandhi’s action. Continuing with its protest in Patna, BJP workers tried to gherao the Congress state headquarters near Sadaqat Ashram before the police defused the situation.
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Supporters of both sides used lathis and attacked each other with stones during the clash, leaving many injured. The police had to resort to lathicharge to disperse the protesters and bring the situation under control.
The BJP has lodged an FIR with the Patliputra police station alleging that Congress workers attacked their supporters who had taken out a peaceful procession with stones, iron rods and lathis near the Sadaquat Ashram.
The BJP’s FIR said that four of its workers, including Balram Mandal, Jitendra Singh, Upendra Kumar Singh and Bholu Kumar were seriously injured in the clash. Chief minister Samrat Choudhary was scheduled to visit the Kurji Hospital to meet the injured workers. BJP state president Sanjay Saraogi went to meet the injured party workers.
The BJP named Krishna Allaveru, Congress’ state incharge, Manish Kumar Yadav, a former student leader of the Patna University, former MLA Anit Kumar Tunna, Amar Azad, Premchand Singh, Amar Prakashm Nitesh Singh, Narayan, Bhola Yadav, Abhishek Ranjan, Shaswat Shekhar, Shashank Shekhar among others.
Later addressing a press conference, BJP former Union minister Shahnawaz Hussain said the Congress party workers attacked the BJP workers who were peacefully demonstrating outside the Sadaqat Ashram.
He claimed that the vehicles of several party MLAs, including Rohit Pandey, Ram Kripal Yadav, Vinay Bihari and senior leaders like Anil Kumar Singh were damaged.
Hussain who is also the party’s national spokesperson said that the successive losses of Congress had made the party frustrated and it was now adopting the path of anarchy and violence.
The Congress leaders indulging in arson have been identified.
“We were protesting peacefully when Congress people started attacking aggressively with sticks and throwing stones while we were protesting peacefully,” said BJP spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel. On the other hand, state Congress spokesperson Asit Nath Tiwari said that the BJP workers and leaders had tried to forcibly enter the Sadaqat ashram premises and our supporters had only tried to resist them. “ We did not start any offensive action against BJP workers,” Tiwari said.
ASP Komal Meena said, “Some BJP workers were trying to gherao the Sadaqat Ashram premises, which led to a law and order situation. Stone-pelting and a lathicharge also took place, in which several people were injured. They have been provided medical treatment. The police reached the spot in time and brought the situation under control.”
