Bihar: BJP Alleges Its Leader Died After Police Lathicharge During Protest

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was allegedly killed on Thursday as police lathi-charged party workers, including senior leaders, who tried to march toward the Bihar Vidhan Sabha in protest against the Nitish Kumar government’s teacher recruitment policy.

Police also used water cannons and tear gas to disperse scores of BJP workers protesting against the alleged scam in the recruitment, several of whom were also detained.

Vijay Kumar Singh, BJP’s Jehanabad District General Secretary, was allegedly killed during police lathicharge, party leader Sushil Modi alleged.

Samrat Choudhary, Bihar Leader of Opposition and state BJP chief, said the party is observing today as a black day. “Today, democracy was murdered. Vijay Singh was our brother and an important leader. We will fight against Nitish Kumar,” he said.

Admin Says Real Cause of Death Yet to Be Known 

The District Magistrate of Patna said no injury marks have been found on the body of the deceased Vijay Singh. “Orders have been given to constitute a medical board and conduct the post-mortem of the deceased and videography of the entire post-mortem process. The real cause of death will be known after the postmortem. A joint investigation report regarding the incident has been sought from Additional DM, Law and Order, Patna and City SP within 24 hours,” he said.

Chirag Paswan, MP and Lok Janshakti Party chief condoled the death of BJP worker and said, “I want to ask Nitish Kumar and Bihar government, who is responsible for his death? Somebody was beaten to death by a lathi…those who raise their voice against the state govt is silenced by lathi…CM must answer, he is accountable for this death.”

Security has been beefed up in Patna to avoid any untoward situation and prepare for the protest march, which began at Gandhi Maidan. Before the march commenced,

State BJP president Samrat Choudhary told reporters that the opposition party was holding protests to hold the government accountable, especially Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who had promised “10 lakh jobs”.

The BJP was holding a “Vidhan Sabha march” in support of demands of teachers’ job aspirants and those MLAs who chose to remain present inside the House had sought to build the tempo with provocative slogans like ‘raddi CM gaddi chhod’ (incompetent chief minister should give up his post).

“Everybody knows who made that rhetorical promise. Only one individual had done so. It is, now, the time to deliver,” said Choudhary, referring to the 2020 assembly poll campaign of the young RJD leader whose party came to power last year after BJP was stripped of the same with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s exit from the NDA.

BJP workers, many of them wearing saffron kurtas, saris, salwar suits and bandanas, walked waving the party flag while some were perched atop a “prachar rath” (campaign vehicle).

Slogans like “Nitish Tejashwi istifa do” (Nitish Kumar must resign) rent the air as the procession covered a distance of about a kilometre until it encountered barricades put up at the Dak Bungalow crossing.

Notably, the Dak Bungalow crossing is situated around two kilometres from the Vidhan Sabha and, normally, processions are not allowed beyond the point.

When some of the agitators tried to cross the barricade, police resorted to the use of force and firing of tear gas shells, besides water canons, sending the BJP workers scampering.

Earlier today, marshals evicted a couple of BJP MLAs from the Bihar Assembly and also snatched away posters and placards from other members of the opposition party who stood inside the well waving these.

The House was plunged into turmoil no sooner than the proceedings began at 11 am when Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary told Leader of the Opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha that he would not allow him to make any statement until members, inside the well, were asked to return to their seats.

(With PTI Inputs)