Udupi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA K. Raghupati Bhat said on Monday that the Congress was solely responsible for the violence during the Bharat Bandh in the city.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Bhat said that it was due to the violence unleashed by the Congress workers that Prabhakar Poojary, president of the city unit of the BJP, was hit by a stone and a rod at Bannanje and was admitted to hospital. Some other BJP workers too were injured in the incident.

He said that the altercation between the Congress and the BJP workers at several places in the city was because of the former trying to enforce the bandh and forcing shopkeepers to shut their business. It was not a voluntary bandh. Some shopkeepers had opposed the bandh and had called him and informed him of the strong arm methods of the Congress, he said. The police should have taken strong action against the enforcement of the bandh and rough methods deployed by the Congress workers. But the police did not do so. Hence, the BJP workers had to rush to protect the shopkeepers, who had sought their protection, he said.

Though the Congress had said that the bandh was called to protest against the hike of fuel prices, its workers were rebuffed by autorickshaw drivers in Manipal. The Congress workers had tried to forcibly shut down a hotel at Kadiyali. When a woman protested against it, they threatened her and tried to assault her.

“The Congress has shown its goonda culture. After saying the bandh is voluntary, why did the Congress workers go around the city asking shopkeepers to shut down their shutters?” he asked.

Mr. Bhat said that the Congress leaders and workers had become despondent after losing all the five Assembly seats in Udupi district to the BJP. In recent elections to the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC), the BJP had won 31 out of a total of 35 seats, while the Congress had got only four seats.

“The Congress workers had poured out their frustration at the loss in these elections on the people and the BJP workers by resorting to violent methods during the bandh,” he said.

He said that this was a government-sponsored bandh. ‘Why did the police not stop the enforcement of bandh by the Congress workers,” Mr. Bhat questioned.

Mattar Ratnakar Hegde, president of district unit of BJP, was present.