Bike-borne supporters of health and environment minister Tej Pratap Yadav on Wednesday entered the aiport's no-traffic zone in blatant violation of the rules.
The RJD workers had gone to the airport to receive Lalu Prasad's elder son, who was coming from Delhi on an IndiGo flight.
As CCTV camera footage showed, the party workers first bypassed the barrier from where people managing the counter give tokens to every vehicle entering the airport premises. Then, they refused to park their bikes in the designated parking slot and entered the car parking area, from where security personnel drove them away.
A security officer at the airport told The Telegraph on condition of anonymity: "There were more than 100 bikers who had come to welcome the health minister. They first didn't stop at the barrier and moved towards the car parking area, bypassing the designated two-wheeler parking stand. On being asked to stop, they said, 'Hum log party karyakarta hain (We are party workers)'. There was mayhem as the large number of bikes in the car parking space started causing inconvenience to the other passengers and visitors. The CISF personnel rushed to the area and drove away the workers."
After being driven away from the car parking space, the party workers parked their bikes bang in the middle of the exit road from the airport, causing further inconvenience to passengers.
"I tried to talk to a few of them but they were refused to move their vehicles from the no-parking zone," the security officer said. "Then I approached one of their leaders and requested him to tell his party colleagues to keep their bikes on the side of the road so that the outgoing traffic would not be affected. A few moved their bikes. None of the motorcyclists paid the parking fee and most of them were without helmets."
An attendant at the two-wheeler parking area corroborated: "None of the party workers parked their bikes in the stand and they didn't pay any parking charge."
The chaos continued for about an hour from 2pm to 3pm; the IndiGo flight 6E 5126 carrying the health minister landed around 2.30pm.
Patna airport director Rajendra Singh Lahoria, however, denied there was any chaos. "How can someone enter the inner areas without getting tokens at the barrier? You can yourself see that security has been tightened all along the airport in view of Prakash Utsav," he said.
The RJD, too, officially denied any such thing had happened. "We have no information of any such incidents," RJD spokesperson Pragati Mehta said when contacted.
The BJP pounced on the opportunity to blast the RJD. "It's in the history of RJD to create fear and chaos in the society by taking laws into their own hands," alleged former state BJP president Mangal Pandey. "The same was reflected today when Tej Pratap's supporters created bedlam on the airport premises with party workers indulging in hooliganism. If a minister takes the law into his own hand, how will the administration run?"
JDU spokesperson Neeraj Kumar, however, pointed out that when then newly appointed state BJP president Nityanand Rai arrived from Delhi on December 2, BJP workers had entered the airport premises with horses, drums and bands. "They (BJP) have no moral right to accuse others," Kumar said.
