Ranchi:
In an apparent retaliation to the booing of Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren at an event on Thursday in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, workers of his party, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, today showed black flags to Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar as he arrived at the Ranchi airport.
Upset over the heckling, Mr Soren had called the incident a "rape of the democratic system" and had demanded a public apology from PM Modi. His party has threatened to protest against any central minister's visit to the state.
"The unseemly and disrespectful approach during my speech is rape of the democratic system," Mr Soren told the media, hours after being hooted by alleged BJP activists who even ignored the Prime Minister's request for restraint.
Mr Soren was booed by a section of the crowd when he was speaking at a function to unveil a slew of developmental projects by PM Modi at Prabhat Tara Ground at Dhurwa area.
Earlier this week, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his Maharashtra counterpart Prithviraj Chavan were also hooted by crowds in the presence of the Prime Minister recently in separate programmes.
The Congress maintains the BJP is engineering the booing and "no self-respecting chief minister" would share stage with Mr Modi if this state of affairs continues.
The BJP maintains that the heckling was just a measure of the public mood. Senior BJP leader and Union home minister Rajnath Singh has asked the Congress to reconsider its advice to chief ministers to stop sharing stage with Mr Modi.
Mr Tomar of the BJP was in Ranchi for an inauguration function.