Waving black flags at Union Minister, JMM's futile attempt: BJP

Jamshedpur, Aug 24: BJP on Sunday said the waving of black flags at the Union Steel and Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar during his Jharkhand visit was a "futile attempt on the part of the ruling JMM to regain its lost ground in the state."

When asked about the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's protest during Tomar's visit yesterday, Jharkhand unit spokesman of the Bharatiya Janata Party Amarpreet Singh Kale described it as "irrelevant".

"Certainly, BJP will be benefiting in the upcoming assembly election in Jharkhand because of the good work being done by the Narendra Modi-government and form a strong and majority government in the state", he told reporters.

Tomar was first shown black flags when his convoy was passing through Hinoo Chowk near the Ranchi airport and then outside the Sonari Aerodrome in Jamshedpur. Speaking about the incident, Tomar later said in Ranchi yesterday that those showing black flags to him were themselves preparing to sit in the opposition as the people of state would vote for the BJP in the next Assembly elections.

Referring to BJP activists being among those who hooted Chief Minister Hemant Soren when he was speaking in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a function in Ranchi's Dhurwa area on Thursday, Kale denied the role of the BJP activists in the incident.

"It was a government function and people from all sections of the society and political parties irrespective of their party affiliation as well as critics had come to listen Modi and raised 'Modi Modi' slogans and had not hooted Soren," he said.

Such things had happened even during BJP's party meetings where Modi had participated, he claimed while deploring JMM's "opportunistic approach" for political gain.

In fact, Soren was given more time to speak at the function, he said. JMM had issued a statement later that day (August 21) that its activists would protest visits of any central minister to Jharkhand if a public apology was not tendered by the Prime Minister following the "unseemly" act by BJP activists during the chief minister's speech.

PTI