Wednesday, September 7 2005 11:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Several persons were injured in a clash between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers and members of the 'Rashtriya Chandravansh Sangharshsheel Morcha' outside the Patna railway station today (Sept 7, 2005) when the morcha workers showed black flag to firebrand BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti.

Official sources said that the morcha members showed black flags to Bharti on her arrival to attend a party meeting to protest against her recent remarks against 'Jarasandh', the mythological king of Magadh.

Some BJP workers, who had gone to receive the BJP leader, protested against their action and after some heated words fisticuffs and lathi blows were exchanged in which some people from both sides received minor injuries, the sources said.

Reacting to the incident, Bharti alleged that it was a 'pre-planned attack' by a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader who was expelled from the BJP some time ago.

''With a certain defeat staring him in the face, RJD President Lalu Prasad is indulging in politics of violence. He wants to create caste tensions for political benefit,'' she told reporters.

Voicing apprehension that such attacks on political adversaries of the RJD might increase in the coming days, the BJP leader said that but for the party workers present there she herself would have been assaulted.

Bharti expressed regret for her remarks about 'Jarasandh' saying, ''My remark was not intended to hurt the feelings of the Chandravanshis as I too belong to that community.''

At a party workers' meeting here some time ago Bharti had asked them to 'tear apart the RJD the way Bhim had torn apart Jarasandh in the Mahabharata.