Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday narrowly escaped being hit by a plastic chair thrown at him by a man in the audience at a public meeting the JD(U) stalwart was going to address. Six people, including a JD(U) leader, were injured in the scuffle there.
As Mr Kumar walked to the stage to address the meeting in Nawada in southern Bihar, a plastic chair came flying in his direction from an angry man in the audience. The unnamed man was taken into custody immediately, said party sources. Some protesters in the audience also reportedly threw flip-flops and broken parts of plastic chairs at Mr Kumar, though officials denied any such incident.
A scuffle broke out in a section of the audience and at least six people were injured. Some people, arguing heatedly about the alleged corruption in the district administration and Mr Kumar doing little to end it, began attacking one another with plastic chairs and flip-flops, causing a part of the crowd flee in a stampede-like situation.
JD(U)’s Narhat block general secretary Basant Rajvanshi received severe head injuries. All the injured people were hospitalised.
At Gaya, where Mr Kumar addressed the next rally as part of his ongoing statewide campaign for Bihar’s right to get special category state status, extra alertness by the police prevented untoward scenes by protesters.