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Updated: Nov 17, 2019 00:49 IST

Statue politics has taken a farcical turn in Bihar’s Bhabua in Kaimur district with local leaders of allies BJP, JD(U) and LJP all locked in a bid to install idols of their own political personalities.

It all began last week, when Bhabua BJP MLA, Rinki Rani Pandey, announced that a statue of her late husband and former BJP MLA Anand Bhushan Pandey will be installed in a local park.

The park, managed by Bhabua Nagar Parishad, is situated next to Rajendra Sarovar, a beautified pond at northern outskirts of the town, where residents go for morning walk and boating.

Matters soon came to a head with JD-U’s former district president Chandra Prakash Arya and his nephew Jainendra Kumar Arya claiming the park had already been named after freedom fighter Badri Prasad Arya-- Chandra Prakash’s father and Jainendra’s grandfather.

Congress leader Shambhu Singh Patel, who lost in the assembly polls to BJP’s Rinki Rani, soon joined in the debate and announced his support for the Aryas claim. He also enlisted the support of BJP leader and former chairman Amardev Singh.

Over Wednesday and Thursday, the warring sides erected two iron boards at the park, each naming it after their own. The tension was defused, or so it was thought before the story took a further twist on Friday, when Shambhu Patel and Amardev Singh met district officials alleging the park itself was made illegally on PWD land without obtaining a NOC.

This lead to the administration removing both the boards from the park on Saturday afternoon.

LJP district president Ram Yash Kushwaha also entered the fray on Saturday by demanding a statue of the firebrand CPI leader and former MLA Ram Lal Singh be erected at the Rajendra Sarovar. Singh was from the Kushwaha community.

BJP’s district president Jitendra Pandey and JD-U president Pramod Kumar Singh said the dispute was “personal” and was unlikely to impact the alliance’s functioning in the area, but the LJP district president warned that the differences could damage NDA prospects in Kaimur district.