PATNA:  Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha and over 60 workers and leaders of the party were injured in a police lathi-charge during a protest march in Patna on Saturday.A clash took place between policemen and hundreds of RLSP workers when the latter, led by Kushwaha, were marching through Patna’s thoroughfares to the Raj Bhawan to submit a memorandum on educational reforms to Governor Lalji Tandon. 

Kushwaha, who served as Union minister of state for human resource development before resigning and joining Bihar’s Opposition Grand Alliance in December 2018, lost consciousness during the clash and was rushed to Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), said RLSP leaders.

Many of the party’s injured workers were also hospitalised, they added.

“He (Kushwaha) received injuries on his head, back and arms during the barbaric lathi-charge, which was a pre-planned exercise by the Nitish Kumar-led government ...” said Madhaw Anand, RLSP’s national general secretary. The lathi-charge, coming a day before Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s scheduled ‘Jan Akanksha Rally’ in Patna, added a little more glue among the Grand Alliance parties.

“This act on the RLSP chief during a peaceful demonstration is against the values of democracy and shows the dictatorial mindset of Nitish Kumar,” said Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav. “We condemn the police action on our RLSP colleagues,” said Congress state president Madan Mohan Jha.