In an apparent attempt to gain political mileage from the assault on journalists by ruling JD(U) MLA Anant Singh, the Opposition parties in Bihar enforced a statewide bandh on Friday.

Leader of Opposition Rabri Devi—who otherwise prefers to remain indoors—was seen marching on the roads of Patna with a party flag in her hand demanding that the Nitish Kumar Government should go. “There is jungle and goonda raaj in Bihar. This Government has failed on all fronts and it should go,” she declared before courting arrest. The former CM even sat on a dharna on the road and led a procession of the RJD and registered her presence at all important points of the state capital.

Leaders of other parties like the LJP, CPI-ML, Congress, CPI and NCP were also on the streets to extract their share of the political pie. Though all of them castigated the Nitish Kumar Government for the assault on journalists, CPI-ML(Liberation), which had separately called for a bandh, targeted the previous RJD as well as the present NDA Government for patronising criminals like Anant Singh.

Ironically, a number of politicians with criminal antecedents too were seen protesting against what they called “goonda raaj”. Prominent among them were LJP MP Surajbhan, who is a known terror of the Mokamah area and a rival of Anant Singh. RJD leader Lalit Yadav, who was charged with torturing a truck driver and later exonerated, had also joined the protest.

Reports from across the state said the bandh call had elicited a good response as leaders and workers of all the Opposition parties took to the streets and shouted slogans against the Government. In Patna, shops had downed shutters and schools were closed.

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