Workers of opposition parties like the RJD, the Congress and the Left hit the streets across Bihar on Tuesday, expressing solidarity with the countrywide shutdown called by farmers' organisations in protest against the agriculture laws.
Key crossroads in the state capital like Dak Bungalow and Boring Road witnessed huge traffic snarls as the agitators, many of them carrying respective party flags notwithstanding advice to the contrary from senior leaders, staged demonstrations raising slogans against the Narendra Modi government and its alleged attempt to benefit "Ambani and Adani".
Government offices and banks remained functional though most shops and private establishments remained closed, and the bandh supporters flattened tyres of e-rickshaws and auto-rickshaws wherever these were spotted on the roads.
According to ADG, Police Headquarters, Jitendra Kumar, a total of 125 people were rounded up by way of "preventive arrests" across the state, including 35 in Patna.
"No untoward incident was reported during the bandh from any part of the state," he told PTI-Bhasha.
Sources in the East Central Railway zone headquartered at Hajipur said "trains were stopped at nearly a dozen spots across Bihar for durations not exceeding 20 minutes".
Long queues of vehicles were seen on highways connecting districts like Jehanabad, Begusarai, Khagaria and Nawada where bandh supporters placed burning tyres, disrupting vehicular traffic for a few hours.
In Darbhanga, they enforced the shutdown in Lalit Narayan Mishra Mithila University and Kameshwar Singh Sanskrit University, besides preventing plying of vehicles on the roads.
In Khagaria, the agitators staged demonstrations wearing garlands of 'rotis' prepared on make-shift stoves, in an attempt to send across the message that the bill would hit the farmers and also make food expensive for people from other walks of life.
Neeraj Kumar, MLC of the ruling JD(U), issued a sarcastic statement alleging that opposition parties in the state were seeking 'pratishodh' (revenge) from the people for their defeat in the recently-held assembly polls.
RJD spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwari countered the charge, claiming party activists have been asked to observe the bandh peacefully, and report to the administration "any attempts by anti-social elements to indulge in mischief and bring a bad name to the party".
