Stampede at Sanjay Dutt-Amar Singh's rally

A stampede broke out on Saturday at an election meeting of actor-turned-politician Sanjay Dutt here in West Champaran district when fans pulled down the wooden barricades to have a closer look at the filmstar. 

Hundreds of cheering fans, who assembled at the ground at the sub-divisional headquarters for the meeting, pushed and jostled with each other to get a close glimpse of Munna Bhai.

In the melee, the barricades gave in and the crowd surged towards the dais. Some of them even managed to climb it and perched on it precariously. As the chaos persisted, police used batons to chase away the crowd, triggering a stampede of sorts. Many fell in a heap on one another to escape the baton charge, resulting in minor bruises to some, police said.

When the situation was restored after about 15 minutes, SP general secretary Amar Singh described the Lalu-Paswan-Mulayam axis as "true representatives of the
aspirations of the backward classes and weaker sections".

He dubbed Congress as 'vote katwa' (vote splitter), and charged Bihar's ruling JD(U) with having insulted its seasoned leaders like George Fernandes and Digvijay Singh by
denying them tickets to contest the elections.