Opposition Claims Total Success on Bihar Bandh
Patna: January 25, 2008
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Bihar Bandh
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Photo by Shashi Uttam |
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A day after the Communist leaders did their bit to chip away support for the Nitish-led NDA government in Bihar, the opposition parties, in a rare gesture of unity against the ruling government, observed a state-wide bandh to protest against the police firing in Kahalgaon earlier last week that caused four fatalities.
The bandh, considered by the ruling party leaders as a desperate attempt to bring down the Nitish government, evoked mixed response in Patna, Bhagalpur, and Muzaffarpur where shops remained closed but there was not effect in government and private offices.
Train traffic in some districts were affected when supporters of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) sat on the tracks causing much delay in their schedule.
The protestors did their best to disrupt traffic in Patna by burning tires on road intersections and forced colleges to cancel classes while also vandalizing several shops that did not wish to forego their daily income due to the strike.
Over 1500 protestors were arrested in Patna who were later released at their own cognizance.
While the opposition leaders claimed total success of the bandh, the NDA shrugged off the event calling it a huge failure 'like Lalu Prasad Yadav's Chetawani Rally and Ram Vilas Paswan's Sankalp Rally'.
"Those who are protesting against poor power situation in Bihar are the ones responsible for this problem in the state," said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Radha Mohan Singh.
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