In NDA-ruled Bihar, BJP leader gunned down amid coronavirus lockdown

Unidentified marauders on Sunday gunned down a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader at Begusarai, around 135 kms from the State Capital. The killing in broad daylight took place at a time when the Bihar Police claimed that “crime in the State has drastically come down in the wake of lockdown.”

Perceived as a political killing in an election year (Bihar will have Assembly polls in October-November this year), the assailants pumped in six bullets when Dheeraj Bharadwaj, a Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) leader, was holding confabulations with his acquaintance Anil Yadav, an RJD leader. Dheeraj died on the spot, while Yadav sustained bullet injuries.

On hearing gunshots, the locals gathered and gave the criminals a chase. In the melee, the assailants fired at the locals in which one Bittu Kumar too sustained gun-shot injuries.

“The motive behind the murder is not clear. But we are trying to identify the culprits,” said DSP, Rajan Sinha.

Begusarai is represented by senior BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh in the Lok Sabha, but it has been a Left stronghold as well. Giriraj had defeated CPI leader and former JNU Students’ Union leader Kanhaiya Kumar during 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Sunday’s killing could be a fallout of political rivalry in the NDA-ruled Bihar where the BJP is an alliance partner of Nitish Kumar’s JD (U). The State will witness Assembly elections soon in the next four-five months. Bihar, in fact, will be the first State which will have polls this year post-lockdown.