Patna, Jan 28 (IANS) Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) dawn-to-dusk state-wide shutdown to protest rising prices of essential items evoked a total response Thursday, affecting normal life in Bihar. RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan were arrested, along with dozens of other leaders, in state capital Patna.
The leaders were released in the evening.

Rabri Devi was arrested first followed by Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan, former central minister and RJD parliamentarian Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, along with dozens of party leaders, including former parliamentarian Ram Kirpal Yadav and hundreds of party workers at the busy Dak-Bungalow when they blocked roads.

RJD leader Shakil Ahmad Khan told IANS: “Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi, along with RJD parliamentarian and former minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and several party legislators, took out a march on the main roads to protest rising prices during the bandh.”

Police officials said Rabri Devi, Lalu Prasad and other RJD leaders and party workers were arrested for blocking roads and disrupting normal traffic. “They were taken to a place, but released in the evening,” a police official said.

According to reports from different districts, more than 1,000 workers and leaders of the RJD were arrested during the shutdown but later released.

Police arrested RJD workers and leaders in Patna, Nalanda, Bhagalpur, Khagaria, Gaya, Jehanabad, Aurangabad, Madhepura, Chapra, and other districts during the shutdown “for disrupting normal life during bandh”.

The RJD’s shutdown evoked a total response with thousands of party workers blocking highways, rail tracks and bridges. Roads in Patna, Gaya, Nawada and other major towns in the state were deserted. Only a few private vehicles were seen.

RJD supporters blocked Mahatma Gandhi Setu, a bridge over the Ganges in Patna that connects south Bihar to the north.

Party workers targeted trains at several places, including Jehanabad, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Hajipur railway stations. Dozens of RJD workers were arrested in Nalanda district for taking out a protest march.

The shutdown was supported by RJD’s ally Lok Janshakti Party and the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India-Marxist and Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist.

In view of the shutdown, most schools in Patna had decided to stay closed.

The shutdown was peaceful in the morning but later on reports of the supporters of the shutdown clashing with shopkeepers and others at different places came in, police officials in Patna said.

Some leaders of RJD’s students wing forced dozens of students to vacate a library in Patna university campus for the shutdown. Shutdown supporters forced to postpone an examination in Bhagalpur university.

The state administration deployed extra security forces in Patna and other district headquarters to deal with the situation.