When Amit Shah got stuck in lift

A tinge of amusement marked the otherwise serious ambience in pre-poll Bihar after BJP president Amit Shah got stuck inside a lift at the state guest house here for sometime on Thursday night.

BJP Rajya Sabha MP and Bihar in-charge Bhupendra Yadav, two other party officials Nagendra and Saudan Singh and a few security personnel were with portly Shah in the lift that got stuck between the ground and the first floors around 11.30 pm.

The Janata Parivar found the incident funny even as the BJP expressed its displeasure saying no help was available during the “emergency situation”. Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad, who is known for his wacky sense of humour, took a dig at Shah’s weight saying: “Amit Shah is quite mota (fat) and our lifts in Bihar are chhota (small). So heavyweight politicians should use stairs to go from ground floor to first floor. This will be a good exercise for those who can’t do yoga.”

A couple of days ago, Prasad’s mimicking Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an election rally in the state saw the audience burst into laughter. BJP vice-president CP Thakur on Friday said the incident was the result of a conspiracy by the state government. Bihar BJP chief Mangal Pandey said mobile connectivity was lost inside the lift and the security personnel of Shah, who enjoys Z+ security, rescued him by tearing the steel door. Spokesperson of the ruling Janata Dal(United) Neeraj Kumar laughed off the conspiracy charges. Shishir Sinha, Principal Secretary, Cabinet Coordination, later said the lift malfunctioning was caused by overloading.

“The lift has a capacity of 340 kgs. Maximum five persons should enter it. But I have been informed that it was overloaded and, therefore, stopped just six inches before reaching the first floor,” he said. Sinha also added that the lift is a new one without any past problem and the rescue operation took just seven minutes and not 40 minutes as was alleged.