BJP, Cong workers clash over remarks against PM

Patna: Tension flared on Friday as BJP and Congress workers clashed in Patna and Ara over alleged derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the ongoing ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra' prompting police action to restore order.

In Patna, the BJP and Congress workers clashed outside the Sadaquat Ashram, the state headquarters of the grand old party. Both sides claimed their workers sustained injuries in the incident.


The BJP workers started a protest march from Kurji More to register their protest over the remarks against the PM. They reached the Congress office and broke open the gate and attempted to damage the parked vehicles.

Images going viral on social media showed supporters of both the parties attacking each other with flagpoles and bamboo sticks, leaving a few of them wounded in the incident. The situation was brought under control after the police reached the spot and intervened.

"Falsehood and violence cannot stand before truth and non-violence. Strike and destroy as much as you want—we will continue to protect truth and the Constitution. Truth alone triumphs," Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posted on social media on Friday.

Describing it as a cowardice act, AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said, "The attack on our Bihar PCC office, led by a sitting cabinet minister and other BJP leaders, is an act of cowardice and will not deter us from continuing to expose the massive ‘vote chori' being carried out in the name of SIR," he said in his post.

Congress general secretary Sachin Pilot, who is accompanying Gandhi, was more blunt. "Whoever used abusive language deserves condemnation. But it is wrong to associate the Congress and the INDIA bloc with the episode. And the attack on our party's state headquarters was abominable," Pilot said.

Launching a fierce attack on Congress, BJP minister Nitin Nabin said they won't tolerate such acts by the Congressmen. "We will not tolerate the insult to our PM's mother. Rahul, his party, and alliance partners will have to apologise," the minister said.

Clashes were also reported from Ara, where BJP and Congress party workers exchanged in fisticuffs near the Congress party office over burning of the effigies of Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav by the BJP workers.

"The police intervened to disperse the workers of both the parties," Ara Sadar SDPO-1 Raj Kumar Shah told the reports.

(With inputs from Praveen in Ara)