BJP continues protest against ''misgovernance''

Ranchi, May 22 (UNI) The BJP-sponsored 12-day 'jail bharo' agitation continued today with the party workers gheraoing Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda's residence despite deployment of police forces, in protest against price hike, acute power crisis and rampant corruption.

On the penultimate day of the stir, thousands of BJP supporters tried to break police cordon near the Chief Minister's official residence.

Police lobbed tear gas shells, used water canons and resorted to mild lathicharge to disperse the protestors, in which about 12 people were injured, one of them seriously.

Since the past ten days, thousands of BJP workers from different districts have been converging at the state capital to demonstrate at the high security zone of the Chief Minister's residence.

Yesterday, state BJP president P N Singh received head injury as police allegedly hit him from behind during the protest rally.

On May 12, former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, who launched the programme here, fainted during the programme.

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