JD-U, BJP activists clash over Modi posters
By IANSMonday, July 5, 2010
PATNA - Workers of the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and its ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday clashed in Bhagalpur and Patna over posters of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi during a strike organised against the hike in fuel prices.
In the communally sensitive Bhagalpur, a clash broke out after JD-U activists objected to BJP activists carrying Modi’s posters, police said. The JD-U workers tried to tear the posters that led to the clash.
The BJP workers shouted slogans against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, calling him ‘Maulana Nitish’ and accused him of taking on Modi in a bid to woo Muslim votes.
At Patna’s busy Dak Bungalow Square, JD-U and BJP workers clashed over Modi posters prompting JD-U MP Monazir Hasan to demand that Nitish Kumar should sever ties with the BJP.
Hasan, an MP from Begusarai, said the JD-U should go it alone in the next assembly polls.
Dozens of BJP workers, in the presence of party legislator Arun Kumar, burnt Hasan’s effigy.
Last month, Nitish Kumar voiced displeasure over newspaper advertisements showing him in the company of Narendra Modi.
An upset Nitish Kumar cancelled a dinner he was to host for BJP leaders June 12 and returned Rs.5 crore to the Gujarat government given for Kosi flood relief work in 2008.
