There was no no incident of violence reported from anywhere in Bihar, police sources said. The Chief Minister later claimed that the shutdown on the special status demand was fully successful as the people participated in the agitation “in a voluntary manner.”
However, the opposition BJP and RJD pooh-poohed the ruling party's claim saying the shutdown failed to catch the attention of the people.
Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Nandkishore Yadav said in a statement, “The JD(U)'s bandh was no more than a ‘political stunt' by the Chief Minister who wanted to hog limelight and make the special status demand an issue for electoral dividends in the general elections later this year.”
The Chief Minister and his party were not confident about success of the bandh and so they had scheduled it for Sunday, a holiday, on which people prefer to stay indoors, Yadav said. And contrary to Kumar's claim for peaceful bandhs, his party workers were seen brandishing weapons to force the people to join the agitation under patronage of the police, he alleged.
The senior BJP leader also sought to make light of the Chief Minister's satyagraha for five hours in front of Mahatma Gandhi's bust at the historic Gandhi Maidan and said that the latter took out a march by foot to maximise electoral benefits.
RJD supremo Lalu Prasad lashed at the chief minister saying Kumar acted “cleverly by giving a bandh call on Sunday to protest the Centre's discrimination towards Bihar.” Prasad also mocked the Chief Minister for “prematurely celebrating the release of the Raghuram Rajan panel report in October last year as if Bihar had been granted special status”.
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