Some protestors threw onions at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday while he was addressing a rally in Madhubani for the third phase of the Assembly elections, reported PTI. The voting for the second phase was held earlier in the day.
Kumar was talking about employment in support of his party nominee Sudhanshu Shekhar at Gangaur village ground in Harlakhi Assembly constituency when the onions were thrown at him. However, the attacker missed hitting the chief minister.
Security personnel quickly formed a shield in front of the chief minister even as he continued speaking. “Khub feko, khub feko [keep throwing],” Kumar told the attackers, urging the security guards not to pay attention to them.
After the protestors were caught, the chief minister asked officials to let them go.
Soon after, Kumar continued talking about unemployment, saying that no would have to go outside the state “under compulsion” in search of jobs. He claimed that his government would create more jobs in the state if he returned to power.
The chief minister also criticised Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, who has promised 10 lakh jobs if voted to power. “When they got the opportunity to serve the state for 15 years, they could just provide 95,000 jobs when Jharkhand was also part of the state for 10 years (till 2000) and we have given six lakh jobs to the people during our time,” he claimed.
This was not the first time Kumar faced such attacks or a hostile crowd. On October 26, protestors threw a slipper at Kumar, while he was going towards his helicopter after completing his speech at an election meeting in Muzaffarpur. The slipper had missed Kumar.
On October 24, a group of people shouted slogans criticising his leadership and expressing support for the rival RJD. Kumar replied: “Go attend the rallies of those who you support.”
Kumar lost his cool on October 24 when a group of protestors raised slogans praising former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav during one of his rallies. “Stop this nonsense,” he had told protestors then. “Don’t make chaos here.”
In the first phase of state Assembly elections on October 28, voting was held for 71 seats and a turnout of around 55% was recorded. Of the 94 seats that went to polls in the second phase, the RJD contested 56, the Bharatiya Janata Party 46 and the JD(U) 43. Congress has candidates in 24 constituencies while the three Left parties are fighting on 14 seats. The Opposition’s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav is one of the 1,464 candidates in the fray.
Seventy-eight seats will go to polls in the last phase on November 7. Results for all 243 constituencies will be declared on November 10.
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